from Arab tribes and the Philistines, who at times occupied some cities. Some may also have emigrated to the northern tribes, with whom S. seems to have had particular relations, judging by the shared cult of the calf at Beersheba and in the northern centers of Bethel, Gilgal, and Dan (Am. 4:4; 5:5; etc.). Against the desert nomads, the tribe sought to defend itself; and likewise to react against the Canaanites, as in the case of the two expeditions (1 Chr. 4:34-45) during the time of Hezekiah, in which 13 Simeonite leaders occupied a grazing area near Gerar, taking it from the descendants of Ham.
The name of S. was also borne by a citizen of Jerusalem in the time of Ezra (Ezra 10:31) and by a priest, an ancestor of the Maccabees (1 Macc. 2:1).