Simeon

Simeon was the second son of Jacob and his first wife, Leah. One particular event in this man's rather adventurous life stands out and is described in Genesis 33:18-19 and Genesis 34:1-31. It was referred to by Jacob during his last conversation with his twelve sons.

Some time before Jacob and his family migrated to Egypt, Simeon's sister, Dinah, called on the young ladies in the nearby Canaanitish town of Shalem. It was there that Shechem, son of Hamer the local chief, saw Dinah, took a fancy to her and seduced her.

Subsequently, while Hamor was negotiating with Jacob arranging for Shechem and Dinah be married, Simeon and his younger brother, Levi, took advantage of a strategy which had temporarily disabled the men of Shalem, stormed into the town and slew them all. Jacob, a man of peace, was appalled by this slaughter and feared reprisals by Hamor's allies. At this juncture God intervened and directed Jacob to return to Bethel, where he had been blessed by the Lord as he fled from the wrathful Esau (Genesis, chapters 25, 27 and 28). In his final words (Genesis 49:5-7) Jacob intimated:

• the swords of Simeon and Levi were weapons of violence;

• he had no part in the violent destruction of Shalem; and

• the descendants of these two sons would have no fixed inheritance in Canaan, but would be dispersed throughout the nation of Israel.

When Israel, under Joshua's leadership, occupied Canaan the tribe of Simeon was allotted an area in Judah's inheritance. It would appear, however, that from the time of king David this tribe began to move out of Judah, so that by the time the twelve-tribed kingdom split following Solomon's death, Simeon had become one of the ten tribes constituting the northern kingdom, known as the House of Israel.

In 716 B.C., Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, removed the last of these ten tribes from the land of Israel.

Simeon's heraldic device, highlighted by Jacob, was a naked sword sometimes held in a clenched fist. Later a secondary emblem, a fortified gate, also became associated with Simeon. This insignia could well have arisen from Simeon and Levi's conquest of Shalem as they sought to avenge the wrong done to their sister. Although these two brothers were linked together by Jacob, other factors to be described in the following article restricted these insignia to the tribe of Simeon.

As in the case of Reuben's heraldry, so too the occurrence of that of Simeon in many coats-of-arms in Great Britain and north-western Europe suggest that descendants of this tribe of ancient Israel settled there after disappearing from the Middle East. The sword features in the heraldry of many counties and cities in England and Ireland and is particularly prominent in the insignia of many of the chiefs of clans and ancient families in Scotland. This device also features in the royal arms of Holland and in many cities of that country, as well as in Denmark and Sweden. Likewise, the fortified gate is commonly found in the heraldry of cities in Great Britain, Holland, and Denmark.