Tribes of Israel
The Tribes Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Manasseh Ephraim Benjamin
Topics Children of Israel Ten Lost Tribes
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The Tribe of Simeon (Hebrew שִׁמְעוֹן "Hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew Šimʻon, Tiberian Hebrew Šimʻôn) was one of the Tribes of Israel. At its height, the territory it occupied was in the southwest of Canaan, bordered on the east and south by the tribe of Judah; the boundaries with the tribe of Judah are vague, and it seems that Simeon may have been an enclave within the west of the territory of the tribe of Judah. Simeon was one of the less significant tribes in the Kingdom of Judah. Image File history File links 1695_Eretz_Israel_map_in_Amsterdam_Haggada_by_Abraham_Bar-Jacob. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Tribe of Reuben (Hebrew: שֵׁבֶט רְאוּבֵן, Standard Tiberian ) is one of the Hebrew tribes, founded by Reuben son of Jacob. ... In the Jewish tradition, a Levite (לֵוִי Attached, Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew ) is a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. ... The Tribe of Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה, Praise; Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew ) is one of the Hebrew tribes, founded by Judah, son of Jacob(Israel). ... Tribe of Dan was also a band from the mid 1990s. ... The Hebrew Tribe of Naphtali (My wrestling), was founded by Naphtali, son of Jacob. ... The Tribe of Gad (גָּד soldier, Standard Hebrew Gad, Tiberian Hebrew Gāḏ) is one of the Hebrew tribes, founded by Gad son of Jacob, who was born to Zilpah, the handmaiden of Jacobs first wife, Leah. ... The Tribe of Asher (אָשֵׁר happy, Standard Hebrew AÅ¡er, Tiberian Hebrew ʼĀšēr) is one of the Hebrew tribes, founded by Asher the eighth son of Jacob. ... The Tribe of Issachar (יִשָּׂשׁכָר Reward; recompense, Standard Hebrew Yissaḫar, Tiberian Hebrew Yiśśâḵār) is one of the Hebrew tribes, which the Bible claims was founded by Issachar son of Jacob. ... This entry incorporates text from Eastons Bible Dictionary, 1897, with some modernisation. ... The Tribe of Joseph is not usually listed with the Hebrew tribes although Joseph is one of Jacobs twelve sons, his elder son by Rachel. ... The Tribe of Manasseh (Hebrew alphabet מְנַשֶּׁה, Samaritan Hebrew Manatch, Standard Hebrew MÉ™naÅ¡Å¡e, Tiberian Hebrew MÉ™naÅ¡Å¡eh: from נשני naššānî who makes to forget) is one of the Hebrew tribes, which the Bible says was founded by Manasseh, the son of Joseph. ... Tribe of Ephraim (Hebrew: אֶפְרַיִם / אֶפְרָיִם , Standard Efráyim Tiberian / ; double fruitfulness) took precedence over that of Manasseh by virtue of Jacobs blessing (Gen. ... The Tribe of Benjamin (בִּנְיָמִין Son of my right hand but in some Rabbinical Judaism traditions Son of the south, Standard Hebrew Binyamin, Tiberian Hebrew Binyāmîn) is one of the Hebrew tribes, founded by Benjamin, youngest son of Jacob. ... The Children of Israel, or Bnei Yisrael (בני ישראל) in Hebrew (also Bnai Yisrael, Bnei Yisroel or Bene Israel) is a Biblical term for the Israelites. ... It has been suggested that Israelite Diaspora be merged into this article or section. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... Tiberian Hebrew is an oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient forms of Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Bible, that was given written form by masoretic scholars in the Jewish community at Tiberias in the early middle ages, beginning in the 8th century. ... An Israelite is a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob who was renamed Israel by God in the book of Genesis, 32:28 The Israelites were a group of Hebrews, as described in the Bible. ... For other uses, see Canaan (disambiguation). ... The Tribe of Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה, Praise; Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew ) is one of the Hebrew tribes, founded by Judah, son of Jacob(Israel). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Kingdom of Judah (Hebrew מַלְכוּת יְהוּדָה, Standard Hebrew Malḫut YÉ™huda, Tiberian Hebrew Malḵûṯ YÉ™hûḏāh) in the times of the Hebrew Bible, was the nation formed from the territories of the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin after the Kingdom of Israel was divided, and was named after Judah...

Origin

According to the Torah, the tribe was founded by an individual, Simeon the second son of Jacob, and of Leah, from whom it took its name; however Biblical scholars view this also as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation^[1]. With Leah as a matriarch, Biblical scholars believe the tribe to have been regarded by the text's authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation. However, the tribe is not mentioned in the ancient Song of Deborah, and some scholars think that Simeon was not originally regarded as a distinct tribe^[2]; according to an increasing majority of archaeologists, the south of Canaan, in which Simeon was situated, was simply an insignificant rural backwater at the time the poem was written^[3]. Tora redirects here. ... Simeon, Symeon, or Shimon is a Hebrew name (שִׁמְעוֹן) meaning hearkening; listening, pronounced in Biblical Hebrew Å imÊ¿on, Tiberian Hebrew Å imʿôn. ... Jacob Wrestling with the Angel – Gustave Doré, 1855 Jacob or Yaakov, (Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב, Standard  Tiberian ; Arabic: يعقوب, ; holds the heel), also known as Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל, Standard  Tiberian ; Arabic: اسرائيل, ; Struggled with God), is the third Biblical patriarch. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, who has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ... Look up metaphor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of Greek words aitia = cause and logos = word/speech) is used in philosophy, physics and biology in reference to the causes of various phenomena. ... ... For information on the nurse of Rebeccah, mentioned in Genesis, see Deborah (Genesis) Deborah or Dvora (דְּבוֹרָה Bee, Standard Hebrew DÉ™vora, Tiberian Hebrew Dəḇôrāh) was a prophetess and the fourth Judge and only female Judge of pre-monarchic Israel in the Old Testament (Tanakh). ... Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ...

Character

The impression gained from the Books of Chronicles is that the tribe wasn't entirely fixed in location; at one point it is mentioned that some members of the tribe migrated southwards to Gedor, so as to find suitable pasture for their sheep^[4]. In the following verse, which may or may not be related^[5], it is mentioned that during the reign of Hezekiah, part of the tribe came to the land of some Meunim, and slaughtered them, taking the land in their place^[6]. Further verses state that about 500 men from the tribe migrated to Mount Seir, slaughtering the Amalekites who had previously settled there^[7]. The Book of Chronicles is a book in the Hebrew Bible (also see Old Testament). ... Pastureland Pasture is land with lush herbaceous vegetation cover used for grazing of ungulates as part of a farm or ranch. ... Species See text. ... Hezekiah (or Ezekias) (Hebrew: חזקיה or חזקיהו, God has strengthened) was the 13th king of indepedent Judah and the son of King Ahaz and Abijah (2 Chronicles 29:1), who was a daughter of a man (who was not the prophet) named Zechariah. ... Mount Seir is the mountainous region allotted to the descendants of Esau, the Edomites. ... According to the Book of Genesis and 1 Chronicles, Amalek (עֲמָלֵק; Standard Hebrew ʿAmaleq, Tiberian Hebrew ʿĂmālēq) was the son of Eliphaz and the grandson of Esau (Gen. ...

According to the Midrash, many families in the other Israelite tribes were descended from women from Simeon, which had been widowed from their original Simeonite husbands^[8]. Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש; plural midrashim) is a Hebrew word referring to a method of exegesis of a Biblical text. ... A widow is a woman whose spouse has died. ...

Fate

Though some of the towns in the territory of Simeon are listed in the Book of Joshua^[9], elsewhere in the same Book these towns are ascribed to Judah^[10][11]; textual scholars view the Book of Joshua as being spliced together from several different source texts, in this particular case, the lists of towns being different documents, from different periods to each other^[12][13]. The tribe seems to have dwindled in size, and the size of the tribe dramatically drops by over half between the two census recorded in the Book of Numbers; although the bible places these census during the Exodus, textual scholars place them in the period of priestly source, roughly 700-600 BC^[14][15]. The tribe is completely absent from the Blessing of Moses, which textual scholars date to near the time of the deuteronomist, after the dates of these census^[16]; some Septuagint manuscripts appear to have attempted to correct this, adding the name of Simeon to the latter half of verse 6, which scholars view as unwarrented based on the Hebrew manuscripts^[17]. The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... Textual criticism or lower criticism is a branch of philology or bibliography that is concerned with the identification and removal of errors from texts. ... The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... 1870 US Census for New York City A census is the process of obtaining information about every member of a population (not necessarily a human population). ... The Book of Numbers is the fourth of the books of the Pentateuch, called in the Hebrew ba-midbar במדבר, i. ... ḍ:The article Exodus discusses the events related in the book of the Bible and Torah by the same name. ... The Priestly Source (P) is one of the sources of the Torah postulated by the documentary hypothesis. ... The Blessing of Moses is a poem that appears in Deuteronomy at 33:2-27. ... The Deuteronomist (D) is one of the sources of the Torah postulated by the documentary hypothesis that treats the texts of Scripture as products of human intellect, working in time. ... The Septuagint: A page from Codex vaticanus, the basis of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brentons English translation. ...

In the bible, the dwindling of Simeon is portrayed as being a divine punishment for their reaction to the Rape of Dinah, though many biblical scholars view the episode, and Dinah herself, as an aetiological myth which developed to explain Simeon's misfortune, after it had occurred^[18]. In the Blessing of Jacob, this punishment appears to be prophesied, with the tribe being predicted to become divided and scattered; textual scholars view this as postdiction, since the Blessing of Jacob is believed to have been written in a period around the 9th or 8th centuries (900-700 BC), the same period in which the tribe was actually dwindling^[19]. The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... The Blessing of Jacob is a poem that appears in Genesis at 49:1b-27. ... Postdiction, post-shadowing, retroactive clairvoyance, and prediction after the fact are terms used by critics to refer to those who use hindsight to claim to have predicted a significant event such as a plane crash or natural disaster. ...

As part of the kingdom of Judah, whatever remained of Simeon was ultimately subjected to the Babylonian captivity; when the captivity ended, all remaining distinctions between Simeon and the other tribes in the kingdom of Judah had been lost in favour of a common identity as Jews. Nevertheless, an apocryphal midrash claims that the tribe was deported by the Babylonians to the Kingdom of Aksum (in what is now Ethiopia), to a place behind the dark mountains^[20]. Conversely, Eldad ha-Dani argued that the tribe of Simeon had become quite powerful, taking tribute from 25 other kingdoms, some of which were Arabians; though he names their location, surviving versions of his manuscripts differ as to whether it was the land of the Khazars or of the Chaldeans - Chaldeans would be an anachronism, though it could possibly refer to Buyid Dynasty Persia. A few modern-day groups claim descent from the tribe of Simeon, with varying levels of academic and rabbinical support; some Christian Identity followers believe themselves to be descendants of the tribe. Babylonian captivity also refers to the permanence of the Avignon Papacy. ... Apocrypha (from the Greek word απόκρυφα meaning those having been hidden away[1]) are texts of uncertain authenticity or writings where the authorship is questioned. ... Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש; plural midrashim) is a Hebrew word referring to a method of exegesis of a Biblical text. ... Babylonia was an ancient state in Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... The Kingdom of Aksum (or Axum), was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from ca. ... Eldad ha-Dani or Eldad HaDani or Eldad ben Mahli ha-Dani was a merchant and traveler of the ninth century. ... The Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. ... The Khazars (Hebrew Kuzari כוזרי Kuzarim כוזרים; Turkish Hazar Hazarlar; Russian Хазары; Tatar sing Xäzär Xäzärlär; Crimean Tatar: ; Greek Χαζάροι/Χάζαροι; Arabic خزر; Persianخزر ; Latin Gazari or Cosri) were a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia, many of whom converted to Judaism. ... For other uses, see Chaldean. ... Look up Anachronism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and beyond in Western Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. ... Christian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely-affiliated groups and churches with a racialized theology. ...

References

1. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
2. ^ This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
3. ^ Israel Finkelstein, the Bible Unearthed
4. ^ 1 Chronicles 4:38-40
5. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
6. ^ 1 Chronicles 4:41
7. ^ 1 Chronicles 4:42-43
8. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
9. ^ Joshua 19:2-6
10. ^ Joshua 15:26-32, 15:42
11. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
12. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
13. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, Book of Joshua
14. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, Priestly Source
15. ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible?
16. ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible?
17. ^ Jewish Encylopedia
18. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
19. ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible?
20. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia

• This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.

The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Israel Finkelstein Israel Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist. ... Richard Elliot Friedman is a writer and Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at UCSD. He is also Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization: Hebrew Bible; Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. ... Eastons Bible Dictionary generally refers to the Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, by Matthew George Easton M.A., D.D. (1823-1894), published three years after Eastons death in 1897 by Thomas Nelson. ...

External links