Tribe of Simeon

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Simeon (/ˈsɪmiən/; Hebrew: שִׁמְעוֹן Šīm‘ōn, "hearkening/listening/understanding/empathizing") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel.[1] The Book of Joshua locates its territory inside the boundaries of the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 19:9). It is usually counted as one of the ten lost tribes, but as its territory was south of Judah and gradually being absorbed by Judah, it cannot be considered one of the tribes of the Kingdom of Israel and would certainly not have been affected by the Assyrian sack of the kingdom.

The biblical narrative has it coming into the Land of Israel following the Exodus, while scholarly reconstructions have offered a variety of opinions as to its origins and early history. From the Book of Genesis until the Babylonian captivity, the Bible provides various details about its history, after which point it disappears from the record. A variety of extrabiblical traditional Jewish sources also provide additional material on the tribe.

  1. ^ See Genesis 29:33, Genesis 46:10, Numbers 26:12-14, Joshua 15:21-32, Joshua 19:1-9, Judges 1:3,17.

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