The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 9

H¹🔗ear, O my children, hear Simeon your father, what things I have in my heart.

²🔗 I was born of Jacob my father, his second son; and my mother Leah called me Simeon, because the Lord heard her prayer.

³🔗 I became strong exceedingly; I shrank from no deed, nor was I afraid of anything.

⁴🔗 For my heart was hard, and my mind was unmoveable, and my bowels unfeeling: because valour also has been given from the Most High to men in soul and in body.

⁵🔗 And at that time I was jealous of Joseph because our father loved him; and I set my mind against him to destroy him, because the prince of deceit sent forth the spirit of jealousy and blinded my mind, that I regarded him not as a brother, and spared not Jacob my father.

⁶🔗 But his God and the God of his fathers sent forth His angel, and delivered him out of my hands.

⁷🔗 For when I went into Shechem to bring ointment for the flocks, and Reuben to Dotham, where were our necessaries and all our stores, Judah our brother sold him to the Ishmaelites.

⁸🔗 And when Reuben came he was grieved, for he wished to have restored him safe to his father.

⁹🔗 But I was wroth against Judah in that he let him go away alive, and for five months I continued wrathful against him; but God restrained me, and withheld from me all working of my hands, for my right hand was half withered for seven days.

¹⁰🔗 And I knew, my children, that because of Joseph this happened to me, and I repented and wept; and I besought the Lord that He would restore my hand unto me, and that I might be kept from all pollution and envy, and from all folly.

¹¹🔗 For I knew that I had devised an evil deed before the Lord and Jacob my father, on account of Joseph my brother, in that I envied him.