SIMEON
“that has been heard.”
(a) Second son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:33). Together with Levi, his brother, he massacred the Canaanites who lived in Shechem, because of the outrage inflicted on Dinah, their sister, by a prince of this city (Gen. 34: 24-31). (See DINA.)
Simeon was the one who had to be held hostage in an Egyptian prison (Gen. 42:24). Jacob, as he died, predicted Simeon’s future role, and reminded him of the massacre of the Shechemites, announcing that, like Levi, his descendants would be scattered in Israel (Gen. 49: 5-7).
(b) Ancestor of Christ who lived between David and Zerubbabel (Luke 3:30).
(c) Son of Harim. Ezra persuaded him to send away his foreign wife (Ezra 10:31).
(d) Upright and pious man to whom the Holy Spirit revealed that he would not die before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. Arriving at the Temple at the moment when Joseph and Mary presented the baby Jesus, Simeon recognized in Him the promised Messiah, and said that he could now die in peace. The old man announced to Mary that she would suffer greatly because of the fate reserved for her son (Lk. 2: 25-35).
(e) Prophet or doctor of the church of Antioch; He had the nickname Niger, “the Black”; it is possible that he was of African race (Acts 13:1).