Simeon

Simeon (Hebrew Shim'on, "hearing" or "one who hears") is the name of several biblical figures, most notably the second son of Jacob and the tribe descended from him, and — in the New Testament — the devout old man who held the infant Jesus in the temple. The name itself testifies to answered prayer: Leah named her son Simeon, saying, "Because the LORD has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also" (Genesis 29:33).

As patriarch, Simeon is remembered chiefly for an act of violent zeal. When the prince of Shechem defiled their sister Dinah, Simeon and his brother Levi deceived the men of the city into being circumcised and then, while they were in pain, slaughtered them and plundered the city (Genesis 34:25–29). Jacob condemned the deed for bringing trouble on his house, and on his deathbed pronounced not a blessing but a sentence: "Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce... I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel" (Genesis 49:7). Earlier, in Egypt, it was Simeon whom Joseph bound and kept as a hostage while the brothers returned for Benjamin (Genesis 42:24).

The prophecy of scattering was fulfilled in the history of the tribe of Simeon. Its inheritance was not a separate region but a cluster of towns drawn "within the inheritance of the people of Judah," in the dry south around Beersheba (Joshua 19:1; Joshua 19:9). Numerically strong at the first census, Simeon had shrunk dramatically by the second (compare Numbers 26:14), and the tribe was gradually absorbed into Judah, losing its distinct identity — yet it is not forgotten: Simeon still receives its seal among the twelve tribes of the redeemed in Revelation 7:7.

In the New Testament the name shines most brightly in Simeon of Jerusalem, "righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel," to whom the Holy Spirit had revealed that he would not die before seeing the Lord's Christ (Luke 2:25–26). Taking the infant Jesus in his arms in the temple, he blessed God in the song known as the Nunc Dimittis: "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace... for my eyes have seen your salvation... a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel" (Luke 2:29–32), foretelling also that the child was set for the fall and rising of many and that a sword would pierce Mary's own soul. The name belongs as well to Simeon called Niger among the prophets and teachers at Antioch (Acts 13:1), and is the original Hebrew form of the apostle Simon Peter's name (Acts 15:14). Across these figures the name keeps its meaning — a God who hears.