SIM'EON (Heb. Shim'an; of uncertain deriva tion). A very common Hebrew name (also Nabatan), appearing generally in English as Simon (also Simeon) ; also the name of a He brew tribe and of its traditional ancestor, the second son of Jacob. Of the patriarch little is told; he took part with Levi in the raid upon Sheehem (Gen. xxxiv.), was hostage for his brothers to Joseph (ch. xliii.), and is cursed along with Levi by the father in 'Jacob's bless ing' (eh. xlix.). These traditions doubtless rep resent tribal conditions in early Hebrew history. Upon the conquest of Canaan Simeon appears as accompanying Judah in the conquest of South ern Canaan (Judges xi.). In the allotment of the territory Simeon acquired districts in the west er!) and southern portions of Judah, including the important towns of Beersheba, Hormab, Zik lag, Sharuhen, yet in Joshua xv. all Simeon's towns are included in Judah. From this time Simeon almost disappears from history, except for a probably reliable record by the Chronicler (1. Chron. iv. 24 et seq.) of an expansion of the
tribe in King Hezekiah's time, even as far as the land of Seir. It does not figure at the division of the kingdom, nor is there any reference to Simeon upon the return. (An old tradition reads Simeon for Shimei in Zechariah xii. 13.) With this disappearance of the tribe goes the tes timony of its non-mention in 'Moses's blessing' (Dent. xxxiii.). The legends of patriarchal times therefore stand for the historic fact that Simeon, a border tribe, early lost its identity, partly through war, partly through amalgamation with Judah or with desert tribes, with which history may he compared the fate of Dan. Consult: Graf, Der Stamm Sim con. (Meissen, 1866) ; Steuernagel, Eintranderung der israelitisehen Stall! Me (Berlin, 1901).