Mourning Simeon in the Egyptian Delta

The sons of Simeon stood in the alluvial mud of the delta to lament his death. A cedar coffin, measuring roughly six feet in length, held the remains of their patriarch. They remained bound to this foreign soil, tracking the passage of decades by river floods.

The descendants of Simeon occupied the eastern Nile delta during the middle of the second millennium b.c. Their settlement sat barely twenty miles from the bustling trade routes connecting Egypt to Canaan. They waited in this marshy region until Moses emerged to command their massive tribal exodus.

Egyptian soldiers fiercely guarded the royal limestone vaults that held the bones of Joseph. Taking advantage of a regional border conflict, men smuggled the casket 200 miles north to Hebron. They deposited his bones safely inside familiar limestone caves, well outside the jurisdiction of Pharaoh.

The sons of Simeon bewailed their father, and they remained in Egypt until the day of their departure by the hand of Moses.

The formal mourning eventually ceased, replaced by the harsh reality of enforced labor and brick production. Their population steadily multiplied across the delta, laying the groundwork for a vast military migration. When the Almighty finally raised up a deliverer, Simeon stood ready to abandon the floodplains.