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Numbers26:12–14

The Tribe of Simeon

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Numbers 26:12–14 — The Tribe of Simeon. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

12

These were the descendants of Simeon by their clans: The Nemuelite clan from Nemuel, the Jaminite clan from Jamin, the Jachinite clan from Jachin,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

bə·nê šim·‘ō·wn lə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯām han·nə·mū·’ê·lî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lin·mū·’êl hay·yā·mî·nî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·yā·mîn hay·yā·ḵî·nî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·yā·ḵîn

Word by word12 · parsed
בְּנֵ֣יbə·nê[These were] the descendantsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
בְּנֵי — "sons of," masculine plural construct of bên (H1121). Strong's notes the term builds "the family name," reaching grandson, subject, nation — exactly the genealogical-political weight a tribal muster requires.
שִׁמְעוֹן֮šim·‘ō·wnof SimeonH8095
√ Shimʻôwn — Shimon, one of Jacob's sons, also the tribe descended from himNounpropermasculine singular
שִׁמְעוֹן, Simeon (H8095). Named in Genesis 29:33 from shāma‘, "heard" — Leah's "the LORD has heard that I am hated." The tribe stands second in birth-order yet is here the most diminished; the Verifier finds Simeon (H8095) shared with Genesis 46:10 and Exodus 6:15, the two earlier rosters this census deliberately echoes.
לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם֒lə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯāmby their clansH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iPreposition-lNounfeminine plural constructthird person masculine plural
לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם, "to/by their clans" (H4940, mishpāḥâ). The governing keyword of the whole census; it recurs ten times in these three verses, the drumbeat of the apportioning formula.
הַנְּמ֣וּאֵלִ֔יhan·nə·mū·’ê·lîThe NemueliteH5242
√ Nᵉmûwʼêlîy — a Nemuelite, or descendant of NemuelArticleNounpropermasculine singular
הַנְּמוּאֵלִי, "the Nemuelite" (H5242). In Genesis 46:10 and Exodus 6:15 this same son is Jemuel; Keil & Delitzsch explain the yod/nun interchange. The variation is a textual datum, not a contradiction the text hides.
מִשְׁפַּ֙חַת֙miš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לִנְמוּאֵ֗לlin·mū·’êlfrom NemuelH5241
√ Nᵉmûwʼêl — Nemuel, the name of two IsraelitesPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
לִנְמוּאֵל, "from Nemuel" (H5241), the ancestor. The Verifier flags H5241 shared with Numbers 26:9 — but that is a different Nemuel, the Reubenite brother of Dathan and Abiram; the rare lexeme is a homonym, not the same man.
הַיָּמִינִ֑יhay·yā·mî·nîthe JaminiteH3228
√ Yᵉmîynîy — a Jeminite (collectively) or descendants of JaminArticleNounpropermasculine singular
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְיָמִ֕יןlə·yā·mînfrom JaminH3226
√ Yâmîyn — Jamin, the name of three IsraelitesPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
הַיָּכִינִֽי׃hay·yā·ḵî·nîthe JachiniteH3200
√ Yâkîynîy — a Jakinite (collectively) or descendants of JakinArticleNounpropermasculine singular
הַיָּכִינִי, "the Jachinite" (H3200), from Jachin (H3199). Benson and Poole note Jachin appears as Jarib in 1 Chronicles 4:24; the same H3199 lemma also names a temple pillar (1 Kings 7:21), a verbal coincidence, not a thematic link.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְיָכִ֕יןlə·yā·ḵînfrom JachinH3199
√ Yâkîyn — Jakin, the name of three Israelites and of a temple pillarPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
13

the Zerahite clan from Zerah, and the Shaulite clan from Shaul.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

haz·zar·ḥî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·ze·raḥ haš·šā·’ū·lî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·šā·’ūl

Word by word6 · parsed
הַזַּרְחִ֑יhaz·zar·ḥîthe ZerahiteH2227
√ Zarchîy — a Zarchite or descendant of ZerachArticleNounpropermasculine singular
הַזַּרְחִי, "the Zerahite" (H2227). This Simeonite Zerah must not be confused with Judah's Zerah (H2226 again, with the Zarhite clan) at Numbers 26:20 — the Verifier returns a verbal-confirmed match on H2226/H2227 there, but it is a homonymous clan in a different tribe.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְזֶ֕רַחlə·ze·raḥfrom ZerahH2226
√ Zerach — Zerach, the name of three Israelites, also of an Idumaean and an Ethiopian princePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
לְזֶרַח, "from Zerah" (H2226). Keil & Delitzsch: "Zerach, the rising of the sun." The name carries solar imagery later borne by Judah's line (Zerah of the scarlet thread, Genesis 38:30).
הַשָּׁאוּלִֽי׃haš·šā·’ū·lî[and] the ShauliteH7587
√ Shâʼûwlîy — a Shaulite or descendant of ShaulArticleNounpropermasculine singular
הַשָּׁאוּלִי, "and the Shaulite" (H7587). The fifth and final Simeonite clan. Poole and Gill stress what is missing here: Ohad, named in Genesis 46:10, has no clan — five families remain where there were six sons.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְשָׁא֕וּלlə·šā·’ūlfrom ShaulH7586
√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
לְשָׁאוּל, "from Shaul" (H7586), "asked-for" — the surviving fifth clan. The parallel roster at Genesis 46:10 specifies that this Shaul was "the son of a Canaanite woman," so the one Simeonite line the Verifier links across every roster (H7586 → Gen 46:10, Exod 6:15) is also the one whose foreign-born origin Scripture pauses to record — mixed lineage carried in the very clan that endures the census.
14

These were the clans of Simeon, and there were 22,200 men.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’êl·leh miš·pə·ḥōṯ haš·šim·‘ō·nî šə·na·yim wə·‘eś·rîm ’e·lep̄ ū·mā·ṯā·yim

Word by word7 · parsed
אֵ֖לֶּה’êl·lehTheseH428
√ ʼêl-leh — these or thosePronouncommon plural
אֵלֶּה, "these" (H428). The inclusio-closing word of every tribal paragraph in the chapter; it seals the tally just opened by bənê in v.12.
מִשְׁפְּחֹ֣תmiš·pə·ḥōṯwere the clansH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine plural construct
הַשִּׁמְעֹנִ֑יhaš·šim·‘ō·nîof SimeonH8099
√ Shimʻônîy — a Shimonite (collectively) or descendants of ShimonArticleNounpropermasculine singular
הַשִּׁמְעֹנִי, "the Simeonite" (H8099), the collective gentilic. Found in only four verses; its appearance at Numbers 25:14 (Zimri the Simeonite slain at Peor) is the textual hinge the commentators seize: the chapter that killed Simeonites stands two columns before the chapter that counts them.
שְׁנַ֧יִםšə·na·yim[and there were] 22,200H8147
√ shᵉnayim — twoNumbermd
שְׁנַיִם, "two" (H8147), opening the additive numeral. The full figure 22,200 is a decrease of 37,100 from the 59,300 of Numbers 1:23 — the steepest collapse of any tribe, as Benson observes.
וְעֶשְׂרִ֛יםwə·‘eś·rîm. . .H6242
√ ʻesrîym — twentyConjunctive wawNumbercommon plural
אֶ֖לֶף’e·lep̄. . .H505
√ ʼeleph — hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousandNumbermasculine singular
אֶלֶף, "thousand" (H505). Strong's preserves the folk-etymology: ’eleph, the ox-head, first letter of the alphabet, pressed into service as a numeral — a fitting word for a people counted like a herd led out.
וּמָאתָֽיִם׃סū·mā·ṯā·yimmen.H3967
√ mêʼâh — a hundredConjunctive wawNumberfd
וּמָאתָיִם, "and two hundred" (H3967, mê’âh dual). The closing figure, after which the Masoretic samekh (ס) marks a closed paragraph — the scribes themselves drew the line under Simeon here.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A roster with a wound in it — 26:12–13

On its face these two verses are pure administration: bənê Shim‘ôn lə-mishpəḥōṯām, "sons of Simeon by their clans," five names, five clans. But the silences speak. Where Genesis 46:10 and Exodus 6:15 listed six sons of Simeon, here Ohad is simply gone. Matthew Poole reads the gap plainly: "There is another of his sons, Ohad, mentioned Genesis 46:10, not here, possibly because his family was extinct before this time." John Gill reaches the same verdict — Ohad "died without children, and so no family sprang from him; wherefore the families of Simeon were but five." The names that remain have shifted too: the firstborn is Nemuel here, Jemuel there. Keil & Delitzsch explain this not as error but as orthography — "Nemuel is called Jemuel there, as yod and nun are often interchanged" — while of the fourth son they note that "Zerach is another name of the same signification for Zohar (Zerach, the rising of the sun; Zohar, candor, splendour)." The Pulpit Commentary is more unguarded still, calling these "minute variations" important "only" as "showing that Divine inspiration did not preserve the sacred records from errors of transcription." The FSSB does not adjudicate between the philologists and the Pulpit; it records that the apparatus of names is fallible at exactly the points the commentators flag.

ii. The number that names the judgment — 26:14

The tribe's total — šənayim wə-‘eśrîm ’elep̄ ū-mā’ṯāyim, two-and-twenty thousand and two hundred — is the loudest verse in the unit precisely because it is the quietest. Joseph Benson does the arithmetic: "No tribe decreased so much as Simeon's. From fifty-nine thousand and three hundred it sunk to twenty-two thousand and two hundred, little more than a third of what it was." The text never says why, but the whole chorus of voices points two columns back to chapter 25. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown: "It is supposed that this tribe had been pre-eminent in the guilt of Baal-peor and had consequently been greatly reduced in numbers… His justice and holiness in the sweeping judgments that reduced the ranks of some tribes." Charles Ellicott names the man: "Zimri, the chief offender in the matter of Baal-peor, belonged to this tribe… it is probable that he had led astray many of his tribe with him," adding the long shadow — "this is the only tribe on which, according to the present Hebrew text, no blessing was pronounced by Moses." The shift in the very last word of the unit confirms the reading: v.12 began with the man Shim‘ôn (H8095); v.14 closes with the gentilic haš-Šim‘ōnî (H8099) — and that rare collective form appears in only four verses, one of them Numbers 25:14, the death-notice of Zimri the Simeonite. The genealogy and the judgment share a word.

iii. Who lived, and why it matters — 26:12–14

Matthew Henry, surveying the whole census, draws the moral not from Simeon's loss but from a survival recorded elsewhere in the chapter — the children of Korah who "died not" with their rebel father: "If we partake not of the sins of sinners, we shall not partake of their plagues." Read against Simeon, the principle cuts both ways. A clan vanishes (Ohad), a tribe is gutted (Simeon under Zimri), yet the muster still runs name by name, lə-mishpāḥâ, family by family, because the covenant counts what survives. Albert Barnes, on the same Korah note, points forward to the fruit of those who held back: "Samuel the prophet was of this family… Several of the Psalms appear from the titles to have been composed for the sons of Korah." The dead are subtracted; the faithful remnant is named and goes on.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

Read under Sola Scriptura, with the apparatus held at arm's length: this is a census that double-functions as an indictment. Scripture itself supplies the cross-reference — the Simeonite gentilic (H8099) that closes the unit is the same form that, in Numbers 25:14, identifies Zimri the slain prince. The text does not editorialize; it lets the number do the accusing. A tribe born of Leah's cry that "the LORD has heard" (Genesis 29:33) is reduced by more than half because it would not hear, and the missing clan of Ohad and the silence of Simeon in Moses' blessing (Deuteronomy 33) are the text's own footnotes to the figure. Yet the same God who "reduced the ranks" (JFB's phrase, which I take as a true reading of the data, not of the bare text) still numbers the survivors family by family — judgment and faithfulness, in the same paragraph, recorded in the same dispassionate hand. I hold this reading open to correction: the text never states the cause, and to assert it as the meaning would over-claim what the verse merely permits.

The tribe whose name means "heard" is halved because it would not hear — and still it is counted, one surviving family at a time.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same five sons, three rosters verbal / quotation — confirmed

Numbers 26:12 names the Simeonite clans in deliberate parallel with the two earlier patriarchal rosters. The Verifier records a verbal link to Genesis 46:10 on three shared lexemes and to Exodus 6:15 on the same three — Simeon (H8095), Jamin (H3226), and Jachin (H3199, the more distinctive). These are not allusions but recensions of one list, which is why the divergences (Nemuel/Jemuel, Zerah/Zohar, the dropped Ohad) are the commentators' whole subject.

Genesis 46:10 · Exodus 6:15

basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew shared lexemes vs Genesis 46:10: H8095 Shimʻôwn (39 vv), H3226 Yâmîyn (6 vv), H3199 Yâkîyn (8 vv); and vs Exodus 6:15: the same H8095 / H3226 / H3199 — the rare clan-names Jachin and Jamin make this a textual recension, not a coincidence.

Jachin called Jarib in the Chronicler's list verbal / quotation — confirmed

Benson and Poole both note that Jachin (here) appears as Jarib in 1 Chronicles 4:24, where the Chronicler gives Simeon's sons as "Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, and Shaul." The Verifier confirms a verbal link to 1 Chronicles 4:24 on Nemuel (H5241, only 3 verses), Jamin (H3226), and Simeon (H8095). The shared rare lexeme Nemuel pins the connection; the name-swap Jachin→Jarib is the kind of variant Benson chalks up to names "added or changed upon some special occasion not recorded in Scripture."

1 Chronicles 4:24

basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew shared lexemes: H5241 Nᵉmûwʼêl (only 3 vv — rare), H3226 Yâmîyn (6 vv), H8095 Shimʻôwn (39 vv). Rarity of Nemuel anchors the link as a genuine parallel roster.

Simeon's inheritance swallowed inside Judah flagged — verify source

Benson closes his note on the number by tracing its consequence: "the lot of that tribe in Canaan was inconsiderable, only a canton out of Judah's lot, Joshua 19:9." The shrunken tribe receives no land of its own but a remnant carved from Judah's oversized allotment. The Verifier finds no shared original-language lexeme between Numbers 26:14 and Joshua 19:9 — the connection is the commentators' thematic argument (small tribe → small, dependent inheritance), not a verbal one, so it is flagged rather than asserted.

Joshua 19:9 · Deuteronomy 33

basis: Verifier returns no shared lexeme between Numbers 26:14 and Joshua 19:9; the link is Benson's and Ellicott's thematic inference (Simeon's reduced census → a sub-allotment within Judah), which must be argued from content, not from the index.

The Simeonite who fell at Peor verbal / quotation — confirmed

The closing gentilic haš-Šim‘ōnî (H8099) occurs in only four verses, and one is Numbers 25:14 — "the name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri… a leader of a Simeonite family." Ellicott and JFB read the catastrophic count of v.14 directly against this verse. The verbal link on the rare collective form (H8099) is genuine; the causal claim that Peor explains the decline is the commentators' inference, which the text permits but does not state.

Numbers 25:14

basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew shared lexeme H8099 Shimʻônîy (only 4 vv — rare collective gentilic). The lexical link is firm; the historical causation (Peor → decline) is noted as commentary inference, not asserted as the verse's meaning.

Two Zerahs, two tribes — a shared name, not a shared clan structural / thematic — confirmed

The Verifier scores a verbal-confirmed match between Numbers 26:13 (Simeon's Zerah) and Numbers 26:20 (Judah's Zerah) on Zerach (H2226) and the Zarhite gentilic (H2227). This is a genuine shared lexeme but a homonym across tribes: the FSSB flags it as structural rather than treating the two clans as one. The same caution applies to the Verifier's H5241 match with Numbers 26:9, where "Nemuel" is the Reubenite brother of Dathan, not Simeon's son.

Numbers 26:20 · Numbers 26:9

basis: Shared lexemes H2226 Zerach / H2227 Zarchîy recur in Numbers 26:20, but name a Judahite clan (homonym); H5241 Nemuel recurs in 26:9 naming a Reubenite. Verbal overlap is real, referents differ — recorded as structural, with the homonymy named.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The name 'asked-for' and the Son who was given novel

Simeon's last clan is the Shaulite, from Shā’ûl (H7586), "asked-for" — the same name Hannah will give in petition (1 Samuel 1:20, 27, "I asked the LORD for him") and the name of Israel's first king, the people's own demand for a ruler like the nations. The pattern of a people asking for a deliverer runs from the wilderness census forward and finds its true terminus where God gives not what is asked but what is needed: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6). The Shaulite clan, surviving in a halved tribe, keeps alive the language of asking that the gospel answers in a Son no census could number.

1 Samuel 1:20 · Isaiah 9:6

The remnant counted, and Him who counts it widely-held

Simeon is the cautionary case of the muster: a tribe gutted by its own sin, yet still numbered family by family. The principle Matthew Henry draws — "If we partake not of the sins of sinners, we shall not partake of their plagues" — is the seed of the gospel doctrine of the preserved remnant. The Good Shepherd "calls his own sheep by name" (John 10:3) and of those given to Him loses none (John 6:39); the dispassionate hand that records 22,200 survivors after judgment prefigures the One who has every name written, and never miscounts.

John 10:3 · John 6:39

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

This unit is a tribal muster, so the ⚙ layer is unusually restrained: the literal renderings rebuild a chain of construct nouns and an additive numeral, and most word-notes are short by design. Three honesty flags govern the cross-references. (1) The Verifier's rare-lexeme matches include genuine homonyms: H5241 "Nemuel" links Numbers 26:9, but that is the Reubenite; H2226/H2227 "Zerah" links Numbers 26:20, but that is Judah's clan. The lexical link is real; the referents differ, and the badges say so. (2) The link to Joshua 19:9 (Simeon's sub-allotment within Judah) has no shared lexeme and is flagged — it lives entirely in Benson's and Ellicott's reasoning. (3) The causal reading that the Peor plague of Numbers 25 explains Simeon's 37,100-man collapse is the unanimous inference of JFB, Ellicott, Gill, Poole and Benson, but the text itself never states it; the FSSB records it as confirmed commentary and confirmed lexical adjacency (H8099 at 25:14 and 26:14), while declining to assert the causation as the verse's own meaning. Every voice quoted is a verbatim contiguous excerpt of the supplied PD commentary. There is no Joshua 1:5 unit here, so the mandatory Hebrews 13:5 flag does not apply.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)