Leviticus 20:10-21

Leviticus 20:10-21 KJVA  And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.  11  And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.  12  And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.  13  If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.  14  And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.  15  And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.  16  And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.  17  And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.  18  And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.  19  And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.  20  And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.  21  And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

Let's read this in different translations:

Leviticus 20:10-21 MKJV  And a man who commits adultery with a man's wife, who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.  11  And the man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be on them.  12  And if a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have performed a perversion; their blood shall be on them.  13  If a man also lies with mankind, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be on them.  14  And if a man takes a wife and her mother, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both he and they, so that there may be no wickedness among you.  15  And if a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death. And you shall kill the animal.  16  And if a woman goes up to any animal and lies down with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be on them.  17  And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness, it is a wicked thing. And they shall be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.  18  And if a man shall lie with a menstruous woman, and shall uncover her nakedness, he has discovered her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. And both of them shall be cut off from among their people.  19  And you shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, nor of your father's sister. For he uncovers his near kin. They shall bear their iniquity.  20  And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness. They shall bear their sin. They shall die childless.  21  And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

Leviticus 20:10-21 ESV  “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.  11  If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.  12  If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them.  13  If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.  14  If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you.  15  If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.  16  If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.  17  “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity.  18  If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people.  19  You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for that is to make naked one's relative; they shall bear their iniquity.  20  If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.  21  If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

Leviticus 20:10-21 BBE  And if a man has sex relations with another man's wife, even the wife of his neighbour, he and she are certainly to be put to death.  11  And the man who has sex relations with his father's wife has put shame on his father: the two of them are to be put to death; their blood will be on them.  12  And if a man has sex relations with his son's wife, the two of them are to be put to death: it is unnatural; their blood will be on them.  13  And if a man has sex relations with a man, the two of them have done a disgusting thing: let them be put to death; their blood will be on them.  14  And if a man takes as wife a woman and her mother, it is an act of shame; let them be burned with fire, all three of them, so that there may be no shame among you.  15  And if a man has sex relations with a beast, let him be put to death, and let the beast be put to destruction.  16  And if a woman goes near a beast and has sex relations with it, you will put an end to the woman and the beast: their blood will be on them.  17  And if a man takes his sister, daughter of his father or his mother, and has sex relations with her and she with him, it is an act of shame: they are to be cut off before the children of their people; he has had sex relations with his sister, and his sin will be on him.  18  And if a man has sex relations with a woman at the time when she is unwell, he has seen her fountain and she has let the fountain of her blood be uncovered, and the two of them are to be cut off from among their people.  19  And you may not have sex connection with your mother's sister or your father's sister, for they are his near relations: their sin will be on them.  20  And if a man has sex relations with the wife of his father's brother, he has put shame on his father's brother: their sin will be on them; till the day of their death they will have no children.  21  And if a man takes his brother's wife, it is an unclean act; he has put shame on his brother; they will have no children.

Leviticus 20:10-21 ERV  "If a man has sexual relations with his neighbor's wife, both the man and the woman are guilty of adultery and must be put to death!  11  If a man has sexual relations with his father's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. They are responsible for their own death. It is as if that man had sexual relations with his father!  12  "If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed a terrible sexual sin! They are responsible for their own death.  13  "If a man has sexual relations with another man as with a woman, they have committed a terrible sin. They must be put to death. They are responsible for their own death.  14  "It is a sexual sin if a man has sexual relations with a woman and her mother. The people must burn that man and the two women in fire! Don't let this sexual sin happen among your people.  15  "If a man has sexual relations with an animal, both the man and the animal must be put to death.  16  If a woman has sexual relations with an animal, you must kill the woman and the animal. They must be put to death. They are responsible for their own death.  17  "It is a shameful thing for a brother and his sister or half-sister to marry each other and have sexual relations with each other. They must be punished in public. They must be separated from their people. The man who has sexual relations with his sister must be punished for his sin.  18  "If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her monthly time of bleeding, both the woman and the man must be separated from their people. They sinned because they exposed her source of blood.  19  "You must not have sexual relations with your mother's sister or your father's sister. That is a sin of incest. You must be punished for your sins.  20  "A man must not have sexual relations with his uncle's wife. It would be like having sexual relations with his uncle. That man and his uncle's wife will be punished for their sins. They will die without children.  21  "It is wrong for a man to take his brother's wife. It would be like having sexual relations with his brother! They will have no children.

Okay, now we should be past the Ick Factor. I mean, gross. But it's as simple as this:

Sin

Sexual relations with neighbor's spouse

Punishment

Man and woman are guilty of adultery and must be put to death

Let's put it in a table:

Notice homosexuality is listed amongst other perverted sexual sins. It's no more, and no less, than the other sins but it IS SIN, an abomination to God. All of these are egregious sins with severe penalties.

Capital punishment usually meant stoning to death.

"uncovered (their) nakedness" - "Before the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived without clothing in a perfectly natural state (Genesis 2:25). But after the fall, nakedness became a source of shame (Genesis 3:6–7). In fact, shame at their own nakedness was the first felt consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin. Since then, nakedness has been linked with sexuality, privacy, and vulnerability. When the Bible speaks of 'uncovering nakedness,' it is usually referring to some type of sexual sin, perversion, or dishonor." - GotQuestions.org

Absalom, David’s son, publicly broadcasted that he was having sex with his father’s concubines as a sign of disrespect. He violated God's law here.

2 Samuel 16:22 ESV So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof. And Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

The husband and wife are "one flesh" and to "uncover the nakedness" of one, exposes the nakedness of them both.

Genesis 9:20-25 MKJV  And Noah began to be a husbandman. And he planted a vineyard.  21  And he drank of the wine and was drunk. And he was uncovered inside his tent.  22  And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.  23  And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders. And they went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backwards, and they did not see their father's nakedness.  24  And Noah awoke from his wine, and came to know what his younger son had done to him.  25  And he said, Cursed be Canaan. He shall be a servant of servants to his brothers. (Canaan was a son of Ham)

To be "cut off from the people" - ka^rath - H3772
Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries
A primitive root; to cut (off, down or asunder); by implication to destroy or consume; specifically to covenant (that is, make an alliance or bargain, originally by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces): - be chewed, be con- [feder-] ate, covenant, cut (down, off), destroy, fail, feller, be freed, hew (down), make a league ([covenant]), X lose, perish, X utterly, X want.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions
1) to cut, cut off, cut down, cut off a body part, cut out, eliminate, kill, cut a covenant
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to cut off
1a1a) to cut off a body part, behead
1a2) to cut down
1a3) to hew
1a4) to cut or make a covenant
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to be cut off
1b2) to be cut down
1b3) to be chewed
1b4) to be cut off, fail
1c) (Pual)
1c1) to be cut off
1c2) to be cut down
1d) (Hiphil)
1d1) to cut off
1d2) to cut off, destroy
1d3) to cut down, destroy
1d4) to take away
1d5) to permit to perish
1e) (Hophal) cut off
Part of Speech: verb

"In the Hebrew Bible, kareth is a form of punishment which may mean premature death, or else exclusion from the people. According to Richard C. Steiner, the phrase 'to be cut off from one's people' is an antonym for 'to be gathered to one's people' (e.g. Genesis 25:8), and thus kareth in the Bible means to be deprived of the afterlife. Examples of sins making a person liable to kareth include eating chametz on Passover, sexual violations, ritual impurities, and a man's refusal to be circumcised. The Book of Numbers states that anyone who sins deliberately, or high-handedly, receives kareth." - Wikipedia

Note: Jacob Milgrom, a revered Jewish commentator who wrote a 2500+ page 3-volume commentary on Leviticus, notes 19 different categories or reasons that a person could be “cut off” in Israel (Vol I, pg. 458).

The following is from
Karet or Being “Cut Off” in Torah, Posted on April 29, 2011 by Derek Leman
What does it mean to be “cut off” from the people? A technical word for this is extirpation. While we’re throwing around fancy words, another way to talk about being cut off is excision. Excision. Extirpation. Excommunication. What is all this about? What things in Torah bring such a penalty? Is there any hope of forgiveness and release from such a penalty?

Causes of the Karet Penalty
Jacob Milgrom categorizes and lists all the crimes in Torah that result in being cut off. The list is surprising. Offenses range from those which seem relatively minor (eating leaven during Passover week) to major (sacrificing children to Molech).

Here is a simplified breakdown based on Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, Anchor Bible, 458:

Sacred time. Not sacrificing the Passover (Numbers 9:13). Eating leaven during Passover (Exodus 12:15, 19). Working on the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14). Working or failing to fast on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 23:29, 30).

Sacred substance. Eating/drinking blood (Leviticus 7:27; Leviticus 17:10, 14). Eating suet (organ fat, Leviticus 7:25). Misuse of holy incense (Exodus 30:38). Misuse of holy oil (Exodus 30:33). Eating sacrificial meat beyond the permitted time (Leviticus 7:18; 19:8). Eating sacrificial meat while impure (Leviticus 7:20-21). Levites entering sacred areas (Numbers 18:3; cf. Numbers 4:15, 19-20). Blaspheming or sinning with defiance (Numbers 15:30-31; cf. Leviticus 24:15).

Purification rituals. Neglecting circumcision (Genesis 17:14). Neglecting purification after corpse contact (Numbers 19:13-20).

Illicit worship. Molech worship (Leviticus 20:2-5; Ezekiel 14:5). Necromancy (Leviticus 20:6). Slaughter/sacrifice outside the sanctuary (Leviticus 17:4, 9).

Illicit sex. Incestuous marriages (Leviticus 18:27-29).

What is Karet?
Theories could include the following:
(1) Death penalty.
(2) Death penalty for offender and his whole family.
(3) A divine decree of death (not actionable by the people) at certain age (some have suggested before the age of sixty or fifty-two).
(4) A divine decree of a premature and childless death.
(5) A divine decree of the ending of the family line (extirpation).
(6) Denial of afterlife (no “gathering to the ancestors”).
(7) Excommunication from the people.

Karet is not simply the death penalty. The death penalty is carried out by witnesses of a crime and the rest of the townspeople. The Molech worship passage in Leviticus 20:2-5 is an example of a person incurring two penalties: the death penalty and karet.

Neither is karet a death penalty for a person’s entire family. That sort of penalty is different. It is called kherem (the ban) and the most famous example is Achan (Joshua 7).

Psalm 109:13 is helpful: “May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation!” The phrase “cut off” is from the karet root. Milgrom also cites Ruth 4:10 and the fear that a person’s line of descendants might end up “cut off” through the death of those carrying on the name. Being cut off (karet) can happen naturally through deaths and does not have to be a divine penalty for a crime. Add also Malachi 2:12.

Extirpation, the end of a family line, is the likely meaning of karet. Those who commit crimes worthy of karet will, in a matter of generations, find their line coming to an end.

Yet it also may mean a denial of afterlife. The biblical language of a person being “gathered to his kin” or “ancestors” is arguably more than just a reference to burial (as it is used in some cases of people who were not buried in the family tomb). See Numbers 20:24; Numbers 27:13; Numbers 31:2; Genesis 15:15; Genesis 47:30; Judges 2:10 for some examples of this language in the Bible which probably carries with it notions of afterlife.

As Milgrom points out, karet may very well be both denial of afterlife and a decree from God that a person’s family line will come to an end.

Are Karet Sins Forgivable?
The answer to this should be “obviously.”

There are many examples. One of my favorites is 2 Chronicles 30:17-20. The people have violated one of the stern commands with the penalty of karet. They have eaten the Passover in impurity. They have violated Leviticus 7:20-21 and probably for all of their lives they have violated Numbers 9:13 and Exodus 12:15, 19. Yet here is what we read:

"For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites had to kill the passover lamb for every one who was not clean, to make it holy to the Lord. For a multitude of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, 'The good Lord pardon every one who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.' And the Lord heard Hezekiah, and healed the people." (end)

 

"The fountain of her blood" - The Israelites often equated a woman's womb with a fountain. It was from the womb, or the fountain, that a new life came from. It was from Mary's womb that Jesus, the Fountain of Living Waters, sprang from. Each of us, as Christians and Believers in Jesus, become founts of Living Water too as we take the gospel into a dying world. We derive the Living Water from Jesus to sprinkle it throughout the world. This Living Water is the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent to the World after His ascension into Heaven.

John 7:37-38 …Now on the last day, the great day of the feast (Feast of Booths), Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

According to Leviticus 15:19-24, a woman is unclean during her menstruation. It's not a sin because it does not require a sacrifice. But in her delicate condition, she was to have a chance to rest and reset. Every month women are reminded that they have to potential of bringing forth a child, a new life. "Life is in the blood". If she has her period, the menstrual flow of blood, is a reminder a life did not happen that month. The womb becomes a sacred place to be protected by her and her husband. It's the fount from whence their posterity will come.

Out of love for his wife and love for their future children, the husband was to protect this sacred space in his wife. Out of love for her husband and love for their future children, the wife was to protect this sacred space in herself if it was at all possible. (She can't help it if she is unprotected and is forcibly raped.) His sperm is sacred to him and her womb is sacred to her. His sperm was not to be spilled and wasted on anyone else. Her womb was not to be used and wasted on anyone else.

Before she is married, her father is normally her protector and the one to try and protect her sacred womb for from it will come his grandchildren. Once she is married, her husband becomes her protector and the one to protect her sacred womb from which his children shall come. It is the reason why a woman's virginity is so important to a father and a husband. BUT, the same can be said for a man's sperm. It should not be wasted and misused on anyone other than his lawful wife for it is the seed of their future children. A man's virginity is also important. God's commands to abstain from sex outside of marriage is for BOTH the man AND the woman. For him to run around with other women is just as offensive to the sacred as her running around with other men.

Having sex with a menstruating woman could harm her womb, her sacred place from which her children come from. It's like desecrating and vandalizing a church. God wants men and women to realize the sacredness of their sexual union from which comes life. Women are not to consider themselves as public toilets. Men are not to consider women as public toilets. The bodies of men and women are temples. Once we become Christians, the Holy Spirit moves into the temple of our bodies. We have the living God residing in us.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 MKJV  Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  17  If anyone defiles the temple of God, God shall destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are.

1 Corinthians 6:16-20 ERV  The Scriptures say, "The two people will become one." So you should know that anyone who is joined with a prostitute becomes one with her in body.  17  But anyone who is joined with the Lord is one with him in spirit.  18  So run away from sexual sin. It involves the body in a way that no other sin does. So if you commit sexual sin, you are sinning against your own body.  19  You should know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit that you received from God and that lives in you. You don't own yourselves.  20  God paid a very high price to make you his. So honor God with your body.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 ESV  Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?  15  What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?  16  What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  17  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,  18  and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

We should not pollute the sacredness of our bodies.

In the spiritual realm we should not pollute the message of the Living Water that flows from us. The Holy Spirit resides in us as Believers in Jesus Christ. According to the Bible we become temples of the Holy Spirit and a fountain of Living Water comes from this source within us. We need to protect that Source within us. I don't mean it will go away or that we control the Source. I mean we need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and strengthen the outflow of it within us. The more we read the Word, dialogue with God in prayer, praise and worship Him, obey Him, the stronger the outflow of this Living Water. We become better fountains. It's not about white-washing and beautifying our bodies to be more attractive fountains. It's about being more in touch with the Living Water ourselves which strengthens the flow and the flow of the Holy Spirit will naturally begin to wash and cleanse the fountain.

We need to realize the Sacred (Holy Spirit) within us and we need to protect our time with God and learning about Him, deepening our relationship. It is our sacred time. We don't need to be following after every distraction and rabbit trail. That would be wasting our spiritual life and life-giving (showing others Jesus Christ). We don't need to pollute ourselves with the idols of this world but we need to deliberately protect our time with God, the Source of our Living Water. We should treasure Him above all else. We should seek Him out. We should run to Him. We should realize time with Him is sacred and not to be avoided or wasted. If born-again life is to issue forth in others, we need the unobstructed flow of Living Water coming from within us. I don't save people. But the Holy Spirit within me should issue forth and touch those around me and hopefully someone will respond and a born again life will happen. It's a natural consequence of the flowing Living Water. We are conduits of the Sacred life giving flow!

Do we spend an inordinate amount of time (money, energy) on spiffing up the exterior while neglecting the spiritual? Gym time, vitamins, hairstyles, makeup, clothing, enhancements, manis and pedis, cosmetic surgery, wigs/toupes, etc. This may make you look good on the outside, but it may be a waste of time and resources because it's not the outside that counts. Whether you look like the Italian Trevi Fountain or a spring that comes from under a mossy rock doesn't matter. It's the flow of the Water that brings life. Are you attending to your relationship with God or wasting your time on trivial pursuits? Are protecting the sacred relationship from which life may spring?

Lately, it's been in the news of the Christian world about the new President of the Southern Baptist plagiarizing sermons and presenting them as his own sermons. This is one example of someone who has polished his image on the outside but has not done the work on the inside with God. Anyone can get a preacher's hairdo, a fake tan, some nips and tucks, a nice suit and hold a Bible. That does NOT make you an effective fountain of Living Water. In this case, the man has gone to the trouble to even memorize the sermon word-for-word and acting it out on stage like an actor in a play but he is spouting something out of his mouth that is NOT from the Living Source. He's parroting. I'm not even saying what he's memorized and acted out on the platform is wrong so much as it's not coming from his own relationship with God! He needs to be protecting the Sacred Source within himself by spending time with God and staying in touch with God. That will strengthen the flow of the Living Water from within himself. It's not the "fountain" that saves and brings new life, it's the WATER that is issuing from the Source that bring life.  He says he's so busy that he can't take the time to write his own sermons. He gets his underlings to write for him or pays a consulting firm to write his sermons or lifts them from other pastors. So he gets the big bucks salary for someone else's work and he just performs it on a stage. And he's not the only one who does it. Rather than protect their sacred space within themselves and meeting with God there, they are avoiding God, bypassing their relationship with Him, and running around doing "more important things"! The flow out of their lives and mouths is not coming from the Living Water. They haven't put the time in with their Source for it to flow naturally. It's polluted and it's not lifegiving.

Not to be too hard on any one man, we all do it. We all like to run around and be too busy to spend time with God and therefore our busy-ness just ends in menstruating flow... no life coming from it. It's a waste of time. We must keep going back to our Source, God, and spending time with Him so that the flow is pure and strengthened and life giving to those around us! It ONLY comes from a relationship, protected and made a priority, with God. Then it flows naturally and is life giving. 

Don't make church politics the priority. Don't make church growth or more money the priority. Don't make bucks and butts, nickels and noses, the measure of success. Don't make anything a priority over time with God, your Source. 

Matthew 6:31-34 MKJV  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed?  32  For the nations seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.  33  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.  34  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be anxious for its own things. Sufficient to the day is the evil of it.

Matthew 23:24-33 MKJV  Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!  25  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of extortion and excess.  26  Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of them may be clean also.  27  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  28  Even so you also appear righteous to men outwardly, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.  29  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,  30  and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.  31  Therefore you are witnesses to yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets;  32  and you fill up the measure of your fathers.  33  Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

n repent and He forgives us. He welcomes us back into relationship every time.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel - Judah

Judah

Hebrew Yahuda=Praise.

The 4th son of Jacob and Leah.

Genesis 37:12-36 One day when Joseph's brothers had taken the sheep to a pasture near Shechem, his father Jacob said to him, "I want you to go to your brothers. They are with the sheep near Shechem." "Yes, sir," Joseph answered. His father said, "Go and find out how your brothers and the sheep are doing. Then come back and let me know." So he sent him from Hebron Valley. Joseph was near Shechem and wandering through the fields, when a man asked, "What are you looking for?" Joseph answered, "I'm looking for my brothers who are watching the sheep. Can you tell me where they are?" "They're not here anymore," the man replied. "I overheard them say they were going to Dothan." Joseph left and found his brothers in Dothan. But before he got there, they saw him coming and made plans to kill him. They said to one another, "Look, here comes the hero of those dreams! Let's kill him and throw him into a pit and say that some wild animal ate him. Then we'll see what happens to those dreams." Reuben heard this and tried to protect Joseph from them. "Let's not kill him," he said. "Don't murder him or even harm him. Just throw him into a dry well out here in the desert." Reuben planned to rescue Joseph later and take him back to his father. When Joseph came to his brothers, they pulled off his fancy coat and threw him into a dry well. As Joseph's brothers sat down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with all kinds of spices that they were taking to Egypt. So Judah said, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and hide his body? Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not harm him. After all, he is our brother." And the others agreed. When the Midianite merchants came by, Joseph's brothers took him out of the well, and for twenty pieces of silver they sold him to the Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the well and did not find Joseph there, he tore his clothes in sorrow. Then he went back to his brothers and said, "The boy is gone! What am I going to do?" Joseph's brothers killed a goat and dipped Joseph's fancy coat in its blood. After this, they took the coat to their father and said, "We found this! Look at it carefully and see if it belongs to your son." Jacob knew it was Joseph's coat and said, "It's my son's coat! Joseph has been torn to pieces and eaten by some wild animal." Jacob mourned for Joseph a long time, and to show his sorrow he tore his clothes and wore sackcloth. All of Jacob's children came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "I will go to my grave, mourning for my son." So Jacob kept on grieving.

Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold Joseph in Egypt to a man named Potiphar, who was the king's official in charge of the palace guard. He saved his younger half brother, Joseph, from death by the plan of selling him to the Midianites. We will study more about this story when we study Joseph.

  

In Genesis 42-43, Judah was the brethren's spokesman in prevailing on Jacob to let Benjamin go to Egypt, and he accepted responsibility for him. And when Joseph's cup was found with Benjamin, Judah professed their guilt and his willingness to become a servant, though actually innocent of stealing it, in order to pay for the cup. Then Judah touchingly appealed to the supposed Egyptian prince (who was his younger half brother, Joseph) to detain him as a bondservant instead of his youngest brother, by describing his father's love for Benjamin after having lost Joseph (Genesis 44). Judah, in his conduct before Joseph in Egypt, manifested true nobility; he had sold Joseph yet he was willing to be sold himself for the youngest brother.

So, when Reuben forfeited his birthright by incest, Simeon and Levi by manslaughter, Judah, the next oldest, received from Jacob the best blessing of the older sons. He inherits the birthright, blessing and the family’s headship.

Judah stopped with his friend Hirah, an Adullamite, and there married a Canaanitess, Shuah's daughter (Bath-Shua), by whom he had sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. Judah should not have married a foreign woman.

Genesis 39 About that time Judah left his brothers in the hill country and went to live near his friend Hirah in the town of Adullam. While there he met the daughter of Shua, a Canaanite man. Judah married her, and they had three sons. He named the first one Er; she named the next one Onan. The third one was born when Judah was in Chezib, and she named him Shelah. Later, Judah chose Tamar as a wife for Er, his oldest son. But Er was very evil, and the LORD took his life. So Judah told Onan, "It's your duty to marry Tamar and have a child for your brother." Onan knew the child would not be his, and when he had sex with Tamar, he made sure that she would not get pregnant. The LORD wasn't pleased with Onan and took his life too. Judah did not want the same thing to happen to his son Shelah, and he told Tamar, "Go home to your father and live there as a widow until my son Shelah is grown." So Tamar went to live with her father. Some years later Judah's wife died, and he mourned for her. He then went with his friend Hirah to the town of Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared. Tamar found out that her father-in-law Judah was going to Timnah to shear his sheep. She also realized that Shelah was now a grown man, but she had not been allowed to marry him. So she decided to dress in something other than her widow's clothes and to cover her face with a veil. After this, she sat outside the town of Enaim on the road to Timnah. When Judah came along, he did not recognize her because of the veil. He thought she was a prostitute and asked her to sleep with him. She asked, "What will you give me if I do?" "One of my young goats," he answered. "What will you give me to keep until you send the goat?" she asked. "What do you want?" he asked in return. "The ring on that cord around your neck," was her reply. "I also want the special walking stick you have with you." He gave them to her, they slept together, and she became pregnant. After returning home, Tamar took off the veil and dressed in her widow's clothes again. Judah had his friend Hirah take a goat to the woman, so he could get back the ring and walking stick, but she wasn't there. Hirah asked the people of Enaim, "Where is the prostitute who sat along the road outside your town?" "There's never been one here," they answered. Hirah went back and told Judah, "I couldn't find the woman, and the people of Enaim said no prostitute had ever been there." "If you couldn't find her, we'll just let her keep the things I gave her," Judah answered. "And we'd better forget about the goat, or else we'll look like fools." About three months later someone told Judah, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has behaved like a prostitute, and now she's pregnant!" "Drag her out of town and burn her!" Judah shouted. As Tamar was being dragged off, she sent someone to tell her father-in-law, "The man who gave me this ring, this cord, and this walking stick is the one who got me pregnant." "Those are mine!" Judah admitted. "She's a better person than I am, because I broke my promise to let her marry my son Shelah." After this, Judah never slept with her again. Tamar later gave birth to twins. But before either of them was born, one of them stuck a hand out of her womb. The woman who was helping tied a red thread around the baby's hand and explained, "This one came out first." Right away his hand went back in, and the other child was born first. The woman then said, "What an opening you've made for yourself!" So they named the baby Perez. When the brother with the red thread came out, they named him Zerah.

 

Er died childless; and according to custom his widow was suppose to marry the next eldest son, Onan. But Onan refused to preserve the name of his deceased brother that died childless. He didn’t have natural, procreating sex with Tamar and thus did not consummate the marriage. So God was displeased and killed him. The Messiah was to descend from Judah! Onan could have been in the lineage of Christ but he refused. Judah became superstitiously afraid to let his youngest son marry her although he promises him to her. In his heart he blamed her for the sudden deaths of his elder sons when the real cause of their deaths was their own wickedness. His father’s heart couldn’t admit to their sin. It was easier to blame Tamar. Shelah grows up and yet was not given to Tamar as a husband, so she determined to procure children from Judah himself, who had become a widower in the meantime. He was unjust to his daughter-in-law, either through negligence or design, in not giving her his surviving son, and this exposed her to temptation. Tamar wickedly prostituted herself as a harlot to Judah, so the father might raise up seed to the deceased. It is possible she had left her Canaanite beginnings and believed in the Jewish God and learned of the prophecies to Abraham about the Messianic descendant and, by faith, she wanted to be a part of that honored family. But the way she went about it was wrong. Her scheme was well planned. Judah was taken in the snare, and through it he was guilty of incest with his daughter-in-law (not knowing who she was), and, willfully guilty of fornication. Whoever she was, he knew she was not his wife, and therefore not to be touched. He has no excuse. When Tamar is discovered to be pregnant, her scandal reflected on Judah as well as her own family because she was married in the eyes of the law (Judah had promised Shelah to her) to his youngest son, Shelah. She was to be either burnt to death or branded by hot iron as stigmatized for being a harlot. Like Nathaniel Hawthorne's “Scarlet Letter”. But she shows the signet ring, cord and walking stick to prove it had been Judah who had impregnated her. His foolish shame is made public after all and he has to publicly exonerate her. It is a common thing for men to be severe against those whose sins match their own. In judging others, they condemn themselves.

Tamar has twins and Judah has 3 sons again. She has a hard birth and when the first fist came out, they tied a scarlet thread around his wrist as the first born of the twins. But then the fist is drawn back and the other baby, Perez, is born first. Zerah is actually born second. These boys, like Jacob and Esau, struggled for the birthright. Perez obtained it, and from him Christ descended. The Jews, just like Zerah, deserved the birthright, and were marked with a scarlet thread, as those that came first. The Gospel of Salvation through Jesus Christ was offered to them first. But, their nation as a whole, rejected Christ. They pulled back. But the Gentiles, like Perez, accepted Jesus as Christ and Messiah. They pressed forward and broke through to take what was offered to them, salvation. Yet, when the fullness of time is come, all Israel shall be saved because both sons are mentioned in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1:3 (Tamar and Judah are mentioned too).

Judah publicly admitted his guilt and never had sexual relations with Tamar again. I.e. his heart had truly turned away from the sin because his further actions proved it. True repentance is not only realizing and regretting your sin but turning away from it and leaving it behind. There is a change of mind that results in a change of action. Despite the sin of Judah and Tamar, God forgives, redeems and extends mercy to the repentant.

When he moved to Egypt with his family it was himself and his 3 sons. At the time of the Exodus, when we meet with the family of Judah again, they have increased to the number of 74,000 males. God was praised for him, Genesis 29:35, praised by him, and praised in him; therefore his brethren shall praise him. Judah should be a strong and courageous tribe. Judah is not a raging lion, but a lion enjoying the satisfaction of his power and success. Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, represented the tribe as one of the spies. Judah is the tribe that both King David and the Messiah, King Jesus, came from.

Upon the death of Saul, David established the tribe of Judah into a separate kingdom (2 Samuel 2:1). The house of Saul, under the weak Ish-bosheth, reigned over the remaining tribes for 7 1/2 years. Judah was then reunited to Israel under King David. This union continued for eighty years, through the reigns of King David and his son, King Solomon. The legitimate successor of the kingdom (established by David) was Solomon's son Rehoboam. The kingdom separated into Southern Judah (which included the Tribe of Benjamin, most of the Levite tribe, and the Holy City of Jerusalem) and their king, Rehoboam; and Northern Israel with their king, Jeroboam I.

Jacob’s Blessing:

Genesis 49:8-12 Judah, may your brothers praise you. May your hand be in the neck of your enemies. May your father's sons bow before you. Judah is a lion's whelp. My son, you have gone up from the prey. He stooped, he crouched like a lion; and like a lioness, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. And the obedience of the peoples to him. Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be sparkling with wine, and his teeth white from milk.

 

The fulfillment of God's purposes is connected with Judah, for, the King who wields the sceptre, and the Judge who administers the law, comes from Judah, and the gathering of the people will be to Him. Jesus Christ is the King of King's, the Lion of Judah, the Prince of Peace. He is the fulfillment of this prophecy. The hand (symbolizing powerful action) will be in the midst of it’s enemies. They may be surrounded by enemies but they shall have the upper hand. When our Lord Jesus returns to this earth as a mighty King, then all will bow down in homage to Him, as many have already done for centuries in prayer! Just as a lion seizes his prey and returns to the den, daring any to challenge him, so our Savior, the Lion of Judah, takes us by force from our enemies, the devil and sin, to take us back to His City and there, we will be forever protected. 

 

“He crouched like a lion” indicates all 4 legs folded under him in rest. As in, "It is done."

  

The scepter indicates His kingship, the right to rule, the title to all power, His rod of punishment against His enemies. The old "lion" is Jacob, his son, Judah, is his whelp. When Judah's descendants, the Jews, were "whelps" they were seized and devoured by others, they cried, but were not strong enough to fight other nations so he learned to keep his head low. But the whelp will grow up and rise up himself against other nations.

  

A young lion for agility and grace; a full-grown lion for strength and majesty; a lioness whose fierceness defends her offspring. “Shiloh” means “to rest” or “he to whom it belongs” and is used as a personal name for Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and He has the right and ownership of His people. This blessing came way before the city of Shiloh was established.

Later, when the Tabernacle was set up in the city of Shiloh in Canaan, all Israel "knew" that the Lord God dwelt with them. Not in person but in Spirit. Because of God dwelling there with them the people were delivered from their enemies, and His "presence" brought blessing. So Shiloh was a city of redemption or Salvation. Since the Ark disappeared in ancient history, "Shiloh" means Jesus Christ. He became the Salvation, the Redeemer and Deliverer from our enemies and sins, who is with us always. He is that city of strength and refuge. He is the place of refuge.

The Holy Spirit dwells within Christians. He makes His home in us.

The Seed promised to Abraham was to be a great ruler. Isaac and Jacob in turn inherited this promise, and now Judah was to be the ‘lion’s whelp,’ that is, the one to inherit God’s royal promise.

Micah 5:1-5a Jerusalem, enemy troops have surrounded you; they have struck Israel's ruler in the face with a stick. Bethlehem Ephrath (the Bethlehem where Jesus was born), you are one of the smallest towns in the nation of Judah. But the LORD will choose one of your people to rule the nation -- someone whose family goes back to ancient times. The LORD will abandon Israel only until this ruler is born, and the rest of his family returns to Israel. Like a shepherd taking care of his sheep, this Ruler will lead and care for His people by the power and glorious name of the LORD His God. His people will live securely, and the whole earth will know His true greatness, because He will bring peace.

Isaiah 26:1-4 The time is coming when the people of Judah will sing this song: "Our city is protected. The LORD is our fortress, and he gives us victory. Open the city gates for a law-abiding nation that is faithful to God. The LORD gives perfect peace to those whose faith is firm. So always trust the LORD because he is forever our mighty rock. The last verses of the blessing upon Judah refers to Jesus, who would ride a young donkey in the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem where the common people cheered and praised Him. Jesus was really entering unto His death on the cross because He knew death awaited Him and, yet, He went to His destiny. He voluntarily gave His live for us and He was obedient unto death. Jacob’s prophesy was fulfilled. And, though our sins were scarlet, He washed us white as snow. His death, the blood He shed, was the wine or grape juice that washed our filthy, tattered garments of self righteousness. He shed His blood for us, for our cleansing. He has provided garments of righteousness that are pure and clean. When we partake in the Lord’s Supper, Communion, we are asked to remember Jesus’ death, sacrifice and resurrection, when we drink the wine that represents His blood and eat the cracker that represents His broken body. As He has saved us and reconciled us to God, His pure joy shines in His eyes and smile!

Zechariah 9:9 (Messianic prophecy) Everyone in Jerusalem, celebrate and shout! Your king has won a victory, and he is coming to you. He is humble and rides on an ass; and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.

Matthew 21:1-9 (Prophesy fulfillment) And when they drew near Jerusalem, and had come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village across from you. And immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them, and immediately He will send them. All this was done so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King comes to you, meek, and sitting on an ass, even a colt the foal of an ass." And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. And they brought the ass, even the colt, and put their clothes on them, and He sat on them. And a very great crowd spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them in the way. And the crowds who went before, and those who followed, cried out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

At its height, Judah was the leading tribe, and occupied most of the territory of the kingdom, except for a small region in the north east occupied by Benjamin, and an enclave towards the south west which was occupied by Simeon. It had 4 distinct regions: The Negev (south), the Shephelah (coast lands), the Wilderness (wild and barely inhabitable), and the Hills (an elevated plateau that was very fertile).

Judges 1:1-4 And it happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked Jehovah, saying, Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. And Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot so that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into your lot. So Simeon went with him. And Judah went up. And Jehovah delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. And they killed ten thousand men of them in Bezek.

Under Caleb, during the wars of conquest, Judah conquered that portion of the country which was later assigned to it as its inheritance. While the northern tribes (the northern Kingdom of Israel) were effectively scattered and "lost" after the Assyrian conquest in 722 B.C, the Judahites (the southern Kingdom of Judah) maintained their ethnic and cultural identity after being exiled to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 587 B.C. Under Cyrus of Persia, many returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the Temple and established a national identity as "Jews" which has lasted until this day. The northern tribes reconstituted to some degree in Samaria, but were denigrated by the Jews for intermarrying with foreign peoples and for worshiping outside of Jerusalem at Mount Gerizim. What remained of the northern tribes either evolved into the Samaritans, assimilated with Judah as "Jews," or were simply considered to be "lost."

(Note – Assyria was named after it’s capital city, Asshur, and was a colony of Babylon. Assyria became an independent and a conquering power, and shook off the yoke of its Babylonian masters and it absorbed Babylon. It subdued the whole of Northern Asia. The Assyrians were Semites [see Genesis 10:22] but in the process of time non-Semite tribes mingled with the inhabitants. They were a military people, the “Romans of the East.”)

The Twelve Tribes of Israel - Simeon/Simon

Simeon

Simeon means "who hears or obeys" and "is heard".

He was associated with Levi in the terrible act of vengeance against Hamor, Shechem and the Shechemites. 

Genesis 34 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and humbled her. And his soul clung to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke to the heart of the girl. And Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this girl for a wife. And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. And his sons were with his cattle in the field. And Jacob kept silent until they had come. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard. And the men were furious, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel, in lying with the daughter of Jacob. And it ought not to be done so. And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him for a wife. And you make marriages with us, giving your daughters to us, and taking our daughters to you. And you shall live with us. And the land shall be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it. And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, Let me find grace in your eyes, and whatever you shall say to me I will give. Heap upon me ever so much price and dowry, and I will give according as you shall say to me. But give me the girl for a wife. And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, speaking with deceit because he had defiled Dinah their sister. And they said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised. For it is a reproach to us. But in this we will agree with you, if you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will live with you, and we will become one people. But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will go. And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. And the young man did not hesitate to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. And he was more honorable than all the house of his father. And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them live in the land, and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to us, to live with us, to be one people, if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Shall not their cattle and their substance and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live with us. And all that went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to Shechem his son. And every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city. And it happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took each his sword and came upon the city boldly, and killed all the males. And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their sheep and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field. And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives, they took captive, and plundered even all that was in the house. And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have troubled me, to make me stink among those who live in the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And I, being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and kill me. And I shall be destroyed, my house and I. And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot?

The Hivites descended from Canaan son of Ham. Abraham, on his first migration to the Land of Promise, pitched his tent and built an altar under the oak, or terebinth tree, of Moreh at Shechem. By the time Jacob came to the area, Shechem was a Hivite city. To the East of the city Jacob pitched his tent in a “parcel of ground” which he had bought from Hamor, Shechem's father (Genesis 33:19). Here he raised an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel, “God, the God of Israel” (Genesis 33:20). Jacob subsequently bequeathed it, as a special patrimony, to his son Joseph. Genesis 33:19; Joshua 24:32; John 4:5. The field lay undoubtedly on the rich plain of the Mukhna, and its value was greater because of the well which Jacob had dug there, so as not to be dependent on his neighbors for a supply of water. Then follows the story of Dinah's rape by Shechem, son of the city's chief, Hamor. Dinah is the only daughter of Jacob named so she may have been the only daughter he had. She would have been between 13-15 yrs old and they would have been living in the area for 7-8 years. Dinah may have felt safe and maybe had gone visiting the town before. She either had girlfriends there or wanted to make new girlfriends. It's possible that there was a special occasion like a festival or party. But for those times, and in the Middle East, it's doubtful that it was normal for young girls to go alone and unchaperoned to town. It's possible that she sneaked away from her father's tents and went off on her own as some teenage girls do today. Or, it could have been more sinister because it's possible that Shechem had already seen her and enticed her away from the safety of her father's camp by having girls her age invite her. Was she flirting with Shechem? Was she seduced? Was she raped? Either way, she was no longer a virgin and it was serious. Shechem took advantage of her and her unprotected situation. Even in the best case scenario, she was younger, inexperienced, immature and not capable of making sound decisions and he took advantage of that. He was the adult, a male in a male driven society, he had experience in the world and he should have been the one to control himself. In the worst case scenario, he lured her out and raped her. The consequences were the same, she was no longer a virgin and this could have branded her and kept her from making a good marriage. Some say the child begotten in this act of fornication was Asenath, who was brought up by Potipherah's (probably not Potiphar's wife) wife in Egypt, as her daughter, and afterwards married to Joseph. Other scholars deny this. When Jacob heard what happened, he kept his mouth shut. His sons were away from home at the time and he and his family were surrounded by tribes that could be strong enemies. He could have reacted impulsively and gotten into trouble but he used the wisdom of his years to wait. He discussed it with his sons when they came home. Naturally they were angry and upset. Not only had their sister been degraded but the whole family was humiliated. The younger men didn't think carefully as their father had. They wanted revenge, public revenge, so others would think twice about mistreating their family in this way. Simon and Levi wanted to make an example of Hamor, Shechem and the men of Shechem. Simon and Levi plotted revenge. The brothers went with their father to meet with Hamor and Shechem. It seems that Shechem had decided he wanted to marry her. In Hamor's eyes this was a good solution. Hamor was the head of the Hivites and an important figure in their tribe so he thought she would be making a good marriage. Jacob and his sons met with Hamor and Shekem to discuss what happened and Hamor offered the solution of joining the two tribes by marriage. Shechem offered any amount of dowry that Jacob requested for Dinah and a peace treaty between the families for peaceful trade, solidified by intermarriages. But Abraham's servant was told by Abraham not to take a wife from one of the Canaanite tribes to be the wife of his son Isaac; and the same charge was given to Jacob by Isaac (Genesis 24:3). Jacob would never agree to intermarrying with any of a pagan nation. (Marriages with the pagan Canaanite tribes were afterwards forbidden by the law of Moses in Deuteronomy 7:3.) So, in order for Shekem to marry Dinah, he and his family would have to be circumcised and convert to the belief system that Jacob and his family followed. Hamor and Shekem went back to town and talked the men into doing it. Simon and Levi deceived the Hivites by making the agreement with them with no intention of sticking to the agreement. They were not men of their word. Once the Hivites fulfilled their part of the bargain (be circumcised), Simon and Levi went in and killed them all, even the other men who had not been a part of Dinah's rape.

  

And they took the spoils. Since Simon and Levi were Dinah's full brothers, they felt it was up to them to lead in order to get Dinah back and revenge her defilement. Their vindication of Jacob/Israel's sacred calling to be separate from the Gentiles, was right; and their refusal to sacrifice Jehovah's promises for the Hivite prince's offers of a dowry was right. But the way they went about it was treacherous, cruel, and wicked. The innocent townsmen were punished too, and all Jacob's sons joined in plundering the town.

At this time, I wonder how Dinah felt? Was she also in love with Shechem? If she was, she would have been devastated that her brothers killed her lover. Or, maybe, she wasn't in love but knew she had lost her chances of making another good marriage and was willing to marry Shechem in order to be married and have children in one of the most important families in the area. What her brothers did robbed her of that. She might have been really mad at them knowing they had caused her to have to spend the rest of her life a spinster! Or was she so glad to see them! Maybe she hated Shechem and was scared to death of being married off to someone who was violent enough to rape her. Maybe she just wanted to go home and her brothers were her rescuers. How did she feel knowing that all those men were dead because of her?

Little did she realize the consequences of her day out for pleasure! She is not mentioned again except to say that she went down to Egypt with her family.

Jacob/Israel was angry with them because they had let him make a covenant with the Hivites with no intention of honoring it. It ruined the reputation and integrity of their family. Who would make a covenant with a tribe who might not honor it? And, what if the other pagans decided to exact revenge on Jacob/Israel and attacked the family? This could have been an "international incident". In their youth and anger, they had endangered their whole family and possibly their way of making a living (if avengers attacked their flocks or drove them from the land, etc). They had gone of "half-cocked" as the saying goes without thinking out all the consequences. It was wrong for Shechem to do what he did. God was not pleased with what happened to Dinah! But, at least in their eyes, Hamor and Shechem had tried to make it right. It was wrong for the descendants of Abraham to intermarry with pagan tribes. God had specifically made that clear. But God has a way of dealing with wrongs. He is the only fair and righteous Judge. The brothers should have taken this problem to God and followed God's instructions rather than making their own decisions and doing things in their own way. It's possible that God would have told them to do exactly what they did. But they never asked God. They did it in their own strength and in their own wisdom. Their deceitfulness, treachery, their cruelty was also wrong. And they knew better! They knew they should go before God, wait for His Words and obey Him. But they wanted to do what they wanted to do.

Later, when the brothers go to Egypt for food during the famine, Simon was detained by Joseph in Egypt as a hostage (Genesis 42:24).

His father, Jacob, pronounced this against him when dying:

Genesis 49:5-7 Simeon and Levi, you are brothers, each a gruesome sword. I never want to take part in your plans or deeds. You slaughtered people in your anger, and you crippled cattle for no reason. Now I place a curse on you because of your fierce anger. Your descendants will be scattered among the tribes of Israel.

The tribes of Judah and Simeon joined together in the conquest of southern Canaan in Judges 1:3, 17 Simon's families are enumerated in Genesis 46:10; Numbers 26:12-14; and, 1 Chronicles 4:24-43. At the census at Sinai, Simeon numbered 59,300 (Numbers 1:23); it was then the most numerous after Judah. At Shittim it had become the smallest, numbering 22,200. The mortality was a consequent of the idolatry of Peor (Numbers 25:9; Numbers 25:14). Zimri, slain in the act, was a prince of Simeon (Numbers 26:14).

Simeon was the "remnant" with Judah and Benjamin, which constituted Rehoboam's forces (1 Kings 12:23). Still Simeon remained strong enough in Hezekiah's days to smite the men of Ham with an expedition under 13 Simeonite princes, and to occupy their dwellings "at the entrance of Gedor to the E. side of the valley" (1 Chronicles 4:34-43).

The Simeonites "found the Meunim" there besides the Hamites. The Meunim were connected with Maan, a city near Petra, "nomads". Five hundred Simeonites undertook a second expedition under four chiefs, sons of Shimei, against the remnant of Amalek that had escaped from Saul and David (1 Samuel 14:48; 1 Samuel 15:7; 2 Samuel 8:12) to the mountains of Idumea; they smote them utterly, and dwelt in their place, and were there at the date of the composition of 1 Chronicles, i.e. after the return from Babylon.

 

Simeon is omitted in Moses' blessing, possibly because of the idolatry of Peor.

Simeon in the wilderness marched south of the tabernacle, with Reuben and Gad, sons of Zilpah, maid of Leah, Simeon's mother. The Canaanitess, mother of Shaul (Genesis 46:10), and the Horite father of Shaphat, the spy from Simeon (Numbers 13:5), indicate the laxness of Simeon in marriage connections. It was forbidden to marry outside the Israelite tribes because of the fear of falling into the pagan worship of those they intermarried with. Their villages and 18 or 19 cities lay round the well of Beersheba in Judah's extreme south.

Simeon stands first of the tribes appointed to bless the people on Mount Gerizim (Deuteronomy 27:12).

Though cities of Simeon were among those to which David sent presents of the Amalekite spoils, and though Ziklag was David's own property, received from Achish king of the Philistines who had wrested it from Simeon (1 Samuel 27:6; 1 Samuel 30:26), yet Simeon and Judah were few in numbers at his installation at Hebron (1 Chronicles 12:23-37). Some men of Simeon were apparently settled in the northern kingdom of Israel after the disruption (2 Chronicles 15:9; 2 Chronicles 34:6). Simeon is between Issachar and Benjamin, not beside Judah, in Ezekial 48:25.

Simeon is also in Revelation 7:7.