1.  The copy of the words of Simeon, what things he spake to his sons before he died, in the hundred and twentieth year of his life, in the year in which Joseph died.  For they came to visit him when he was sick, and he strengthened himself and sat up and kissed them, and said to them:—

2.  Hear, O my children, hear Simeon your father, what things I have in my heart.  I was born of Jacob my father, his second son; and my mother Leah called me Simeon, because the Lord heard her prayer.⁴⁹

49 Gen. xxix. 33.

50 That Simeon was prominent in the hostility to Joseph, is perhaps implied by his detention in Egypt as a surety for the return of the others; and Jewish tradition generally accords with this view.  Cf. the Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan on Gen. xxxvii. 19:  “Simeon and Levi, who were brothers in counsel, said one to another, Let us kill him.”  Also this same Targum on Gen. xlii. 24:  “And he took from them Simeon, who had counselled to kill him.”  Cf. also Breshith Rabba, § 91.

51 [Gen. xxxvii. 22, 29; xlii. 22.]

3.  And now, children, take heed of the spirit of deceit and of envy.  For envy ruleth over the whole mind of a man, and suffereth him neither to eat, nor to drink, nor to do any good thing:  it ever suggesteth to him to destroy him that he envieth; and he that is envied ever flourisheth, but he that envieth fades away.  Two years of days I afflicted my soul with fasting in the fear of the Lord, and I learnt that deliverance from envy cometh by the fear of God.  If a man flee to the Lord, the evil spirit runneth away from him, and his mind becometh easy.  And henceforward he sympathizeth with him whom he envied, and condemneth not those who love him, and so ceaseth from his envy.

4.  And my father asked concerning me, because he saw that I was sad; and I said, I am pained in my liver.  For I mourned more than they all, because I was guilty of the selling of Joseph.  And when we went down into Egypt, and he bound me as a spy, I knew that I was suffering justly, and I grieved not.  Now Joseph was a good man, and had the Spirit of God within him:  compassionate and pitiful, he bore not malice against me; nay, he loved me even as the rest of his brothers.  Take heed, therefore, my children, of all jealousy and envy, and walk in singleness of soul and with good heart, keeping in mind the brother of your father, that God may give to you also grace and glory, and blessing upon your heads, even as ye saw in him.  All his days he reproached us not concerning this thing, but loved us as his own soul, and beyond his own sons; and he glorified us, and gave riches, and cattle, and fruits freely to us all.  Do ye then also, my beloved children, love each one his brother with a good heart, and remove from you the spirit of envy, for this maketh savage the soul and destroyeth the body; it turneth his purposes into anger and war, and stirreth up unto blood, and leadeth the mind into frenzy, and suffereth not prudence to act in men:  moreover, it taketh away sleep, and causeth tumult to the soul and trembling to the body.  For even in sleep some malicious jealousy, deluding him, gnaweth at his soul, and with wicked spirits disturbeth it, and causeth the body to be troubled, and the mind to awake from sleep in confusion; and as though having a wicked and poisonous spirit, so appeareth it to men.

5.  Therefore was Joseph fair in appearance, and goodly to look upon, because there dwelt not in him any wickedness; for in trouble of the spirit the face declareth it.  And now, my children, make your hearts good before the Lord, and your ways straight before men, and ye shall find grace before God and men.  And take heed not to commit fornication, for fornication is mother of all evils, separating from God, and bringing near to Beliar.  For I have seen it inscribed in the writing of Enoch⁵²

52 [See Speaker’s Com., N.T., vol. iv. p. 387, ed. Scribners.]

53 The Cam. ms. seems wrongly to omit the negative here.  The reference is doubtless to Gen. xlix. 7.

6.  Behold, I have foretold you all things, that I may be clear from the sin of your souls.  Now, if ye remove from you your envy, and all your stiffneckedness, as a rose shall my bones flourish in Israel, and as a lily my flesh in Jacob, and my odour shall be as the odour of Libanus; and as cedars shall holy ones be multiplied from me for ever, and their branches shall stretch afar off.  Then shall perish the seed of Canaan, and a remnant shall not be to Amalek, and all the Cappadocians⁵⁴

54 The reference seems to be to the Philistines.  Cf. Deut. ii. 23; Amos ix. 7, where the LXX. reads Καππαδοκία.

55 [For modern views of these, see Encyc. Brit., s.v. “Hittites.”]

56 [Two of the many passages that leave no room for Lardner’s imaginary “Unitarianism” in this author.]

57 The construction here is awkward of the participles after ὅτι:  possibly a clause may have dropped out after ᾽Αδάμ.

7.  And now, my children, obey Levi, and in Judah shall ye be redeemed:⁵⁸

58 [See p. 10, note 5, supra.]

59 John the Baptist.  His greatness is declared by Christ Himself.]

60 [Two of the many passages that leave no room for Lardner’s imaginary “Unitarianism” in this author.]

8.  And Simeon made an end of commanding his sons, and slept with his fathers, being an hundred and twenty years old.  And they laid him in a coffin of incorruptible wood, to take up his bones to Hebron.  And they carried them up in a war of the Egyptians secretly:  for the bones of Joseph the Egyptians guarded in the treasure-house of the palace; for the sorcerers told them that at the departure of the bones of Joseph there should be throughout the whole of Egypt darkness and gloom, and an exceeding great plague to the Egyptians, so that even with a lamp a man should not recognise his brother.

9.  And the sons of Simeon bewailed their father according to the law of mourning, and they were in Egypt until the day of their departure from Egypt by the hand of Moses.

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