Genesis 49:7

7. I will divide… scatter He speaks as one conscious of divine authority . Their guilty uniting in conspiracy and cruelty is to be punished by dividing and scattering them in Israel . In the census of Numbers xxvi, the Simeonites number only 22,200 less than any other tribe; in Moses’s blessing (Deuteronomy 33:0,) they are not mentioned at all; and in the allotment of Canaan their inheritance consisted of scattered cities within the territory previously assigned to Judah . Joshua 19:1-9.

The Jews have a tradition that the Simeonites became largely the scribes and teachers among the other tribes, and so were scattered in Israel. In 1 Chronicles 4:27, it is said they did not increase like the children of Judah, and in Gen 49:39-43, of the same chapter, it appears that they were scattered beyond the limits of Judah southward . The Levites, as is well-known, obtained no separate territory as a tribe, but were scattered about in various cities of the other tribes. See Joshua 21:0. But this curse of the patriarch did not hinder these tribes from sharing in the blessings of the covenant. Though divided and scattered, they were made a means of blessing to the whole house of Israel. Compare Moses’s words on Levi, Deuteronomy 33:8-11, where their character as priests and teachers is made prominent .

The words used of Simeon and Levi in Jacob’s prophecy have been a great trouble to the critics who would explain it as the production of a later time. So far from being an accurate detail of facts, some writers have pronounced it inconsistent with the history of those tribes, for, according to Joshua 19:1-9, Simeon did have a definite tribe-territory allotted him, and to the Levites were assigned several of the most important cities in the land, with their suburbs, and they were made the priests and ministers of the sanctuary instead of the firstborn. These facts are hard to reconcile with the theory that the song was written after the conquest of Canaan; but, in the mouth of Jacob, the language may be naturally explained.