Testament of Simeon 2

1Hear, my children, Simeon your father, and I will declare to you what I have in my heart.

2I was born from Jacob, the second son to my father, and Leah my mother called me Simeon, because the Lord heard her petition.

3For I became very strong; I did not shrink from any deed, nor was I afraid of anything.

4For my heart was hard, and my liver unmoved, and my inward parts without compassion.

5For courage also is given by the Most High to men in soul and body.

6For in the time of my youth I was very jealous of Joseph, because my father loved him above all.

7And I set my liver against him so as to kill him, because the ruler of deceit and the spirit of jealousy blinded my mind, so that I did not regard him as a brother, nor even spare Jacob my father.

8But his God and the God of our fathers sent his angel and rescued him from my hands.

9For when I went to Shechem to bring ointment for our flocks, and Reuben to Dothan, where our supplies and all our stores were, Judah my brother sold him to the Ishmaelites.

10And Reuben, hearing these things, was grieved, for he wanted to bring him safely back to his father.

11But when I heard this, I was very angry with Judah, because he had let him go alive; and for five months I remained angry with him.

12And the Lord crushed me and held back action from me, for my right hand became half-withered for seven days.

13And I knew, my children, that this happened to me because of Joseph. And after repenting, I wept and prayed to the Lord God that my hand might be restored, and that I might abstain from every defilement and envy and from all foolishness.

14For I knew that I had conceived an evil deed before the Lord and Jacob my father concerning Joseph my brother, being envious of him.