1A record of what Simeon told his sons before he died, in the hundred and twentieth year of his life, the time when his brother Joseph died. 2 When Simeon was sick, his sons came to visit him. He gathered his strength, sat up, kissed them, and said:
2Listen, my children, to Simeon your father, and I will tell you what is in my heart. 2 I was born to Jacob as his second son, and my mother Leah named me Simeon, because the Lord had heard her prayer. 3 I grew very strong. I shrank from no challenge and was afraid of nothing. 4 My heart was hard, my liver unmoving, my insides without compassion. 5 For the Most High has given courage to people, in both soul and body. 6 In my youth I was jealous of Joseph in many ways, because my father loved him more than all the rest. 7 I set my mind on destroying him, because the prince of lies sent out the spirit of jealousy and blinded me, so that I no longer regarded him as a brother and showed no respect even for my father Jacob. 8 But his God, the God of his fathers, sent his angel and rescued him from my hands. 9 When I went to Shechem to bring ointment for the flocks, and Reuben went to Dothan, where we kept our supplies and all our stores, my brother Judah sold him to the Ishmaelites. 10 When Reuben heard about this, he was grieved, for he had wanted to bring him back to his father. 11 When I heard of it, I was furious with Judah for letting him get away alive, and for five months I stayed angry with him. 12 But the Lord held me back and took away the strength of my hands, for my right hand was half withered for seven days. 13 I knew, my children, that this had happened to me because of Joseph, so I repented and wept. I begged the Lord God to restore my hand and to keep me away from all defilement and envy and folly. 14 For I knew that I had plotted an evil thing in the sight of the Lord and of my father Jacob, against my brother Joseph, because I envied him.
3Now, my children, listen to me and beware of the spirit of dishonesty and envy. 2 Envy rules over a person's whole mind and lets him neither eat nor drink nor do anything good. 3 It constantly urges him to destroy the one he envies. As long as the envied person prospers, the envious one wastes away. 4 So for two years I afflicted my soul with fasting in the fear of the Lord, and I learned that freedom from envy comes through the fear of God. 5 If a person flees to the Lord, the evil spirit runs away from him and his mind is relieved. 6 From then on he sympathizes with the one he envied, forgives those who are hostile to him, and so puts an end to his envy.
4My father asked about me, because he saw that I was sad, and I told him: I am pained in my liver. 2 I mourned more than all of them, because I was guilty of selling Joseph. 3 When we went down into Egypt and he bound me as a spy, I knew I was suffering justly, and I did not grieve. 4 Joseph was a good man and had the Spirit of God within him. Compassionate and merciful, he held no malice against me but loved me just as he loved the rest of his brothers. 5 So beware, my children, of all jealousy and envy. Live with integrity and a good heart, remembering Joseph, your father's brother, so that God may give you also grace and glory and blessing on your heads, just as you saw in Joseph's case. 6 As long as he lived he never reproached us about this, but loved us as his own soul. He honored us above his own sons and gave us riches, cattle, and crops. 7 You too, my children, each love your brother with a good heart, and the spirit of envy will leave you. 8 Envy makes the soul savage and destroys the body. It stirs up anger and war in the mind, drives a person to bloodshed, throws the mind into frenzy, and does not let good sense work in people. It even takes away sleep and brings turmoil to the soul and trembling to the body. 9 Even in sleep a malicious jealousy deludes him, gnaws at him, and with wicked spirits disturbs his soul. It troubles the body and wakes the mind from sleep in confusion, and to people it appears like a wicked and poisonous spirit.
5Joseph was handsome in appearance and pleasant to look at, because no wickedness lived in him. The face reveals some of the trouble of the spirit. 2 Now, my children, keep your hearts sincere before the Lord and your conduct upright before others. 3 Then you will find grace before the Lord and before others. 4 So beware of sexual immorality, for sexual immorality is the mother of all evils. It separates you from God and brings you near to Beliar. 5 For I have seen it written in the book of Enoch that your sons will be corrupted by sexual immorality and will harm the sons of Levi with the sword. 6 But they will not be able to stand against Levi, for he will fight the war of the Lord and will defeat all your armies. 7 They will be few in number, divided between Levi and Judah, and none of you will hold royal power, just as our father prophesied in his blessings.
6I have told you everything, so that I will not share in your sin. 2 Now, if you rid yourselves of your envy and all stubbornness, my bones will flourish like a rose in Israel, and my flesh like a lily in Jacob. My fragrance will be like the fragrance of Lebanon, and holy ones will multiply from me like cedars forever, their branches stretching far off. 3 Then the seed of Canaan will perish, no remnant will remain for Amalek, all the Cappadocians will perish, and all the Hittites will be utterly destroyed. 4 Then the land of Ham will fail, and all its people will perish. 5 Then all the earth will rest from trouble, and all the world under heaven from war. 6 Then the Mighty One of Israel will glorify Shem, for the Lord God will appear on earth and himself save mankind. 7 Then all the spirits of dishonesty will be handed over to be trampled underfoot, and people will rule over wicked spirits. 8 Then I will rise in joy and bless the Most High for his marvelous works, because God has taken a body and eaten with people and saved them.
7Now, my children, obey Levi and Judah. Do not exalt yourselves against these two tribes, for from them the salvation of God will arise for you. 2 The Lord will raise up from Levi someone like a high priest, and from Judah someone like a king, both God and man, and he will save all the Gentiles and the race of Israel. 3 So I give you these commands, that you also may command your children to keep them throughout their generations.
8When Simeon had finished commanding his sons, he died and joined his ancestors at the age of a hundred and twenty. 2 They laid him in a wooden coffin, intending to carry his bones to Hebron. 3 They carried them up secretly during a war of the Egyptians.[1] 4 As for the bones of Joseph, the Egyptians kept them guarded in the tombs of the kings. 5 The sorcerers had told them that when the bones of Joseph left, there would be darkness and gloom throughout all the land and a terrible plague on the Egyptians, so that even with a lamp no one would recognize his brother.
9The sons of Simeon mourned their father. 2 They remained in Egypt until the day of their departure led by Moses.