1:1 A copy of the words of Shimon, which he spoke to his sons before he died in the hundred and twentieth year of his life, at the time when his brother Yoseph died.
1:2 While Shimon was sick his sons came to see him, and becoming stronger, he sat up, kissed them, and said,
2:1 Listen, my children, to Shimon, your father, and I shall tell you the things which I have in my heart.
2:2 I was born of Yacob, a second son for my father; and Leah, my mother, called me Shimon because Yahuah had heard her prayer.
2:3 And I became extraordinarily strong; I did not hold back from any exploit, nor did I fear anything.
2:4 My heart was firm, my courage was high, and my feelings were dispassionate.
2:5 For by the Most High, manly courage is given to men in soul and body.
2:6 In the time of my youth I was jealous of Yoseph, because my father loved him more than the rest of us.
2:7 I determined inwardly to destroy him, because the Prince of Error blinded my mind so that I did not consider him as a brother nor did I spare Yacob, my father.
2:8 But his Elohim and the Elohim of our fathers sent His messenger and delivered him from my hands.
2:9 For when I went to Shechem to procure ointment for the flocks, and Reuben went to Dothan where our supplies and stores were, my brother Yahudah sold him to the Ishmaelites.
2:10 When Reuben heard this he was sorrowful, for he wanted to restore him to his father.
2:11 But when I heard it, I was furious with Yahudah because he had let him go away alive. For five months I was angry with him.
2:12 Yahuah bound my hands and feet, however, and thus prevented my hands from performing their deeds, because for seven days my right hand became partly withered.
2:13 I knew, children, that this had happened to me because of Yoseph, so I repented and wept. Then I prayed to Yahuah Elohim that my hand might be restored and that I might refrain from every defilement and grudge and from all folly, for I knew that I had contemplated an evil deed in the sight of Yahuah and of Yacob, my father, on account of Yoseph, my brother, because of my envying him.
3:1 And now, my children, pay heed to me. Beware of the spirit of deceit and envy.
3:2 For envy dominates the whole of man’s mind and does not permit him to eat or drink or to do anything good.
3:3 Rather it keeps prodding him to destroy the one whom he envies. Whenever the one who is envied flourishes, the envious one fades away (languishes).
3:4 Out of the fear/reverence of Yahuah I chastened my soul by fasting for two years. And I came to know that liberation from envy occurs through fear/reverence of Yahuah.
3:5 If anyone flees to Yahuah for refuge, the evil spirit will quickly depart from him, and his mind will be eased.
3:6 From then on he has compassion on the one whom he envied and has sympathetic feelings with those who love him, thus his envy ceases (and forgives those who are hostile to him, and so ceases from his envy.)
4:1 Now my father was inquiring about me because he saw that I was sullen.
4:2 And I said to him, I am inwardly in pain in my liver. For I was more sorrowful than all of them because it was I who was responsible for what had been done to Yoseph.
4:3 And when we went down into Egypt and he placed me in fetters as a spy, I knew that I was suffering justly, and I did not lament.
4:4 But Yoseph was a good man, one who had within him the spirit of Elohim, and being full of compassion and mercy he did not bear ill will toward me, but loved me as well as my brothers.
4:5 Guard yourselves therefore, my children, from all jealousy and envy. Live in the integrity of your heart, so that Elohim might give you grace and glory and blessing upon your heads, just as you have observed in Yoseph.
4:6 In all his days he did not reproach us for this deed, but he loved us as his own life; he extolled us more than he did his own sons, and he showered us with wealth, flocks, and produce.
4:7 And you, my children, each of you love his brothers with a good heart, and the spirit of envy will depart from you.
4:8 For that attitude (envy) makes the soul savage and corrupts the body; it foments wrath and conflict in the reason, excites to the shedding of blood, drives the mind to distraction, arouses tumult in the soul and trembling in the body.
4:9 Even in sleep some malicious jealousy fills his fantasy and consumes him; by evil spirits it stirs up his soul and fills his body with terror. In distress it rouses his mind from sleep, and like and evil, penetrating spirit, so it manifests itself to human beings (and as a wicked and poisonous spirit, so appears it to men).
5:1 Because nothing evil resided in Yoseph, he was attractive in appearance and handsome to behold, for the face evidences any troubling of the spirit.
5:2 And now my children, Make your hearts virtuous in Yahuah’s sight, make your paths straight before men, and you shall continually find grace with Yahuah and with men.
5:3 Guard yourselves from sexual promiscuity because fornication is the mother of all wicked deeds; it separates from Elohim and leads men to Beliar (Satan).
5:4 For I have seen in a copy of the Book of Enoch that your sons will be ruined by promiscuity, and they shall injure with a sword the sons of Levi.
5:5 But they shall not be able to withstand Levi, because he shall wage Yahuah’s war and will triumph over all your battalions.
5:6 These forces distributed among Levi and Yahudah will be few in number, and from you there will be no one for leadership, just as our father predicted in his blessings.
6:1 See, I have told you everything, so that I might be exonerated with regard to your sin.
6:2 If you divest yourselves of envy and every hardness of heart, my bones will flourish as a rose in Israel and my flesh as a lily in Yacob. My odor shall be like the odor of Lebanon. Holy ones shall be multiplied from me forever and ever, and their branches shall extend to a great distance.
6:3 Then the seed of Canaan will be destroyed, and there will be no posterity of Amalek. All the Cappadocians shall be destroyed and all the Hittites shall be wholly obliterated.
6:4 The land of Ham shall be wanting, and all that people shall perish. Then the whole earth shall be at rest from trouble/tribulation, and everything under heaven shall be free from war.
6:5 Then Shem shall be glorified; because Elohim the Master, the Great One in Israel, will be manifest upon the earth [as a man]. By Himself will He save man.
6:6 Then all the spirits of error shall be given over to being trampled underfoot. And men will have mastery over the evil spirits.
6:7 Then I shall arise in gladness and I shall bless the Most High for his marvels.
7:1 And now, my children, be obedient to Levi and to Yahudah. Do not exalt yourselves above these two tribes, [because from them will arise the Savior come from Elohim].
7:2 For Yahuah shall raise up from Levi as it were a High Priest, and from Yahudah as it were a King [Elohim and man]. He will save all the nations and the tribes of Israel.
7:3 For this reason I command these things to you and you command them to your children, so that they may observe them in their successive generations.
8:1 And when Shimon had finished his instructions to his sons, he fell asleep with his fathers at the age of one hundred and twenty years.
8:2 They placed him in a wooden coffin in order to carry his bones up to Hebron; they took them up in secret during a war with Egypt.
8:3 The bones of Yoseph the Egyptians kept in the tombs of the kings, since their magi told them that at the departure of Yoseph’s bones there would be darkness and gloom in the whole land and a great plague on the Egyptians, so that even with a lamp no one could recognize his brother.
9:1 And the sons of Shimon uttered lamentations for their father.
9:2 And they were in Egypt until the day of their departure by the hand of Moses.
