Simeon Confesses Envy Toward Joseph

Simeon calls his sons to his bed in the flat plains of northern Egypt at the age of one hundred and twenty. The humid air of the river delta carries a heavy heat during his final hours. He speaks to his gathered children to explain the bitter envy that shaped his early life.

The narrative places his final days in the fertile farming land of Goshen. This agricultural region sits roughly fifty miles east of the main river channel. Scribes likely recorded this specific text during the second century b.c. It preserves much older oral traditions concerning the early tribes of Israel.

Simeon describes his own physical body as a heavy weapon of tribal war. He claims his muscles never tired during long marches across the limestone hills of Canaan. His bare hands could break wooden yokes and snap thick animal ropes. He never feared dangerous men or wild predators in the open sheep fields. A deep physical arrogance drove his daily actions and shaped his violent temper.

Envy takes hold of the human mind and destroys the physical body, preventing a man from doing any good thing.

He freely confesses his violent plot to destroy his younger brother Joseph. A spirit of dark deceit blinded his judgment and hardened his rational mind. He completely ignored the deep and lasting grief of his father Jacob. Yet the God of Israel delivered Joseph from his violent and jealous hands. Simeon warns his listening sons to run far away from this bitter path.