1
Simeon, the second son of Jacob and Leah. The strong man. He becomes jealous of Joseph and is an instigator of the plot against Joseph.
THE copy of the words of Simeon, the things which he spoke to his sons before he died, in the hundred and twentieth year of his life, at which time Joseph, his brother, died.
2For when Simeon was sick, his sons came to visit him. and he strengthened himself and sat up and kissed them, and said:--
3Hearken, my children, to Simeon your father and I will declare to you what things I have in my heart.
4I was born of Jacob as my father's second son; and my mother Leah called me Simeon, because the Lord had heard her prayer.
5Moreover, I became strong very; I shrank from no achievement nor was I afraid of ought. For my heart was hard, and my liver was immovable, and my bowels without compassion.
6Because valor also has been given from the Most High to men in soul and body.
7For in the time of my youth I was jealous in many things of Joseph, because my father loved him beyond all.
8And I set my mind against him to destroy him because the prince of deceit sent forth the spirit of jealousy and blinded my mind, so that I regarded him not as a brother, nor did I spare even Jacob my father.
9But his God and the God of his fathers sent forth His angel, and delivered him out of my hands.
10For when I went to Shechem to bring ointment for the flocks, and Reuben to Dothan,
where were our necessaries and all our stores, Judah my brother sold him to the Ishmaelites.
11And when Reuben heard these things he was grieved, for he wished to restore him to his father.
12But on hearing this I was very wroth against Judah in that he let him go away alive, and for five months I continued wrathful against him.
13But the Lord restrained me, and withheld from me the power of my hands; for my right hand was half withered for seven days.
14And I knew, my children, that because of Joseph this had befallen me, and I repented and wept. And I begged the Lord God that my hand might be restored and that I might hold aloof from all pollution and envy and from all folly.
15For I knew that I had devised an evil thing before the Lord and Jacob my father, on account of Joseph my brother, in that I envied him.
16And now, my children, hearken to me and beware of the spirit of deceit and envy.
17For envy rules over the whole mind of a man, and suffers him neither to eat nor to drink, nor to do any good thing. But it ever suggests to him to destroy him that he envies; and so long as he who is envied flourishes, he who envies fades away.
18Two years therefore I afflicted my soul with fasting in the fear of the Lord, and I learned that deliverance from envy comes by the fear of God.
19For if a man flee to the
Lord, the evil spirit runs away from him and his mind is lightened.
20And henceforward he sympathizes with him whom he envied and forgives those who are
hostile to him, and so ceases from his envy.
2
Reuben counsels his hearers against envy.
AND my father asked concerning me, because he saw that I was sad; and I said to him, I am pained in my liver.
2For I mourned more than they all, because I was guilty of the selling of Joseph.
3And when we went down into Egypt, and he bound me as a spy, I knew that I was suffering justly, and I grieved not.
4Now Joseph was a good man, and had the Spirit of God within him: being compassionate and pitiful, he bore no malice against me. But loved me even as the rest of his brethren.
5Beware, therefore, my children, of all jealousy and envy, and walk in singleness of heart, that God may give you also grace and glory, and blessing upon your heads, even as you saw in Joseph's case.
6All his days he reproached us not concerning this thing, but loved us as his own soul, and beyond his own sons glorified us, and gave us riches, and cattle and fruits.
7Do you also, my children, love each one his brother with a good heart, and the spirit of envy will withdraw from you.
8For this makes savage the soul and destroys the body. It causes anger and war in the mind, and stirs up to deeds of blood, and leads the mind into frenzy, and causes tumult to the soul and trembling to the body.
9For even in sleep malicious jealousy gnaws, and with wicked spirits disturbs the soul, and causes the body to be troubled, and wakes the mind from sleep in confusion. And as a wicked and poisonous spirit, so appears it to men.
10Therefore was Joseph comely in appearance, and goodly to look upon, because no wickedness dwelt in him; for some of the trouble of the spirit the face manifests.
11And now, my children, make your hearts good before the Lord, and your ways straight before men, and you shall find grace before the Lord and men.
12Beware, therefore, of fornication, for fornication is mother of all evils, separating from God, and bringing near to Beliar.
13For I have seen it inscribed in the writing of Enoch that your sons shall be corrupted in fornication, and shall do harm to the sons of Levi with the sword.
14But they shall not be able to withstand Levi; for he shall wage the war of the Lord, and shall conquer all your hosts.
15And they shall be few in number, divided in Levi and Judah, and there shall be none of you
for sovereignty, even as also our father prophesied in his blessings.
3
A prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.
BEHOLD I have told you all things, that I may be acquitted of your sin.
2Now, if you remove from you your envy and all stiff-neckedness, is a rose shall my bones flourish in Israel, and as a lily my flesh in Jacob, and my odor shall be as the odor of Libanus. And as cedars shall holy ones be multiplied from me
for ever, and their branches shall stretch afar off.
3Then shall perish the seed of Canaan, and a remnant shall not be to Amalek, and all the Cappadocians shall perish, and all Hittites shall be utterly destroyed.
4Then shall fail the land of Ham, and all the people shall perish.
5Then shall all the earth rest from trouble, and all the world under heaven from war.
6Then the Mighty One of Israel shall glorify Shem.
7For the Lord God shall appear on earth, and Himself save men,
8Then shall all the spirits of deceit be given to be trodden under foot, and men shall, rule over wicked spirits.
9Then shall I arise in Joy and will bless the Most High because of his marvelous works, because God has taken a body and eaten with men and saved men.
10And now, my children,, and Judah, and obey Levi and Judah, and be not lifted up against these two tribes, for from them shall arise to you the salvation of God.
11For the Lord shall raise up from Levi as it were a High Priest, and from Judah as it were a King, God and man, He shall save all the Gentiles and the race of Israel.
12Therefore I give you these commands that you also may command your children, that they may observe them throughout their generations.
13And when Simeon had made an end of commanding his sons, he slept with fathers, an hundred and twenty years old.
14And they laid him in a wooden coffin, to take up his bones to Hebron. And they took them up secretly during a war of the Egyptians. For the bones of Joseph the Egyptians guarded in the tombs of the kings.
15For the sorcerers told them, that on the departure of the bones of Joseph there should be throughout all the land darkness and gloom, and an exceeding great plague to the Egyptians, so that even with a lamp a man should not recognize his brother.
16And the sons of Simeon bewailed their father.
17And they were in Egypt until the day of their departure by the hand of Moses.