Simeon
The second son of Jacob and Leah, whose fierce anger at Shechem was rebuked by his father, whose tribe eventually dispersed within Judah, and whose blessing at the end of Genesis became a judgment on his violence.
The Fierce Son
Scripture: Genesis 29; 34; 49
The Biblical Record
Simeon and Levi were brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their habitation. When Shechem violated their sister Dinah, the two brothers responded with calculated deception and wholesale massacre of the men of the city. Jacob rebuked them: you have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants of the land. On his deathbed, Jacob pronounced over them: I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Simeon's tribe was eventually absorbed into Judah, without a territory of its own. The anger that drove the massacre at Shechem echoed through the generations.
Simeon in the Sanctum
Simeon is the figure of zeal untempered by wisdom — the one whose passion for the right thing (his sister's honor) produces a wrong outcome (disproportionate violence). The Sanctum uses his story as part of the twelve tribes narrative and as a study in the consequences of uncontrolled anger.
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