1 Chronicles 4:24-43--Descendants of Simeon

1 Chronicles 4:24-43
English Standard Version

Descendants of Simeon
24 The sons of Simeon: Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul; 25 Shallum was his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son. 26 The sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son, Shimei his son. 27 Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brothers did not have many children, nor did all their clan multiply like the men of Judah. 28 They lived in Beersheba, Moladah, Hazar-shual, 29 Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad, 30 Bethuel, Hormah, Ziklag, 31 Beth-marcaboth, Hazar-susim, Beth-biri, and Shaaraim. These were their cities until David reigned. 32 And their villages were Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan, five cities, 33 along with all their villages that were around these cities as far as Baal. These were their settlements, and they kept a genealogical record.

34 Meshobab, Jamlech, Joshah the son of Amaziah, 35 Joel, Jehu the son of Joshibiah, son of Seraiah, son of Asiel, 36 Elioenai, Jaakobah, Jeshohaiah, Asaiah, Adiel, Jesimiel, Benaiah, 37 Ziza the son of Shiphi, son of Allon, son of Jedaiah, son of Shimri, son of Shemaiah-- 38 these mentioned by name were princes in their clans, and their fathers' houses increased greatly. 39 They journeyed to the entrance of Gedor, to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks, 40 where they found rich, good pasture, and the land was very broad, quiet, and peaceful, for the former inhabitants there belonged to Ham. 41 These, registered by name, came in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and destroyed their tents and the Meunites who were found there, and marked them for destruction to this day, and settled in their place, because there was pasture there for their flocks. 42 And some of them, five hundred men of the Simeonites, went to Mount Seir, having as their leaders Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi. 43 And they defeated the remnant of the Amalekites who had escaped, and they have lived there to this day.

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Simeon had its portion originally given to it from within the portion given to Judah, but they left that inheritance to join with the northern tribes of Israel (remember that Judah was only allowed to keep one other tribe, which was the tribe of Benjamin, and much of the tribe of Levi also stayed close to Jerusalem so that they could serve in the Temple).  It is good to see that the LORD is preserving these tribes as well, and they too are coming back to the Land after they were taken into Exile.

The genealogy gives their lineage before the reign of David when they were surrounded by the allotment given to Judah.  It appears they eventually ended up in Edom (outside the boundaries of Israel).  They were already a small tribe at this point (only 500 men to lead the tribe) and it is possible that we lost track of them at this point--though God never lost track of them because they are included in the list of those from which the 144,000 witnesses will come from.  God has seemingly preserved a remnant from every tribe except for the apostate tribe of Dan--we won't see a genealogy for them here in 1 Chronicles, and we don't see them in 144,000 witnesses in the book of Revelation (see Revelation 7:5-8.  Simeon is in verse 7 and the place of Dan is given to the tribe of Levi who had no portion given to them in the physical kingdom of Israel, but they had their portion given to them in the eternal kingdom.)

Though small, the descendants of Simeon were given victory over some of the remaining Amalekites, and it seems that at the pot-Exilic record recorded here by the priests that the descendants of Simeon still lived in the region of Mount Seir among the Edomites at the time this record was written.