Tribe of Simeon

The biblical narrative has it coming into the Land of Israel following the Exodus, while scholarly reconstructions have offered a variety of opinions as to its origins and early history.

"[3] The Alt school takes the list in Joshua 15 as reflecting the historical situation during the reign of Josiah, and sees the other two as later, and less reliable, attempts by editors to work out the earlier Simeonite territory.

"[6] In the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes.

"[18] According to Israel Finkelstein, the south of Canaan, in which Simeon was situated, was simply an insignificant rural backwater at the time the poem was written.

[19][page needed] Another possibility is that Simeon, along with Judah, had simply not joined the Israelite confederacy at this point,[20][21] or that they had seceded.

[30][31] The tribe is included in the Blessing of Moses (DEU 33:6) as found in the Septuagint, whereas the name is omitted from the Masoretic Text.

[33] Further verses state that about 500 men from the tribe migrated to Mount Seir, slaughtering the Amalekites who had previously settled there.

[18] A midrash claims that the tribe was deported by the Babylonians to the Kingdom of Aksum (in what is now Ethiopia), to a place behind the dark mountains.