Testament of Simeon 4

1My father kept asking about me, because he had seen me gloomy, and I said to him, “My liver is swollen.”

2For I was grieving more than all the others, because I was responsible for the sale of Joseph.

3And when we went down into Egypt and he bound me as a spy, I knew that I was suffering justly, and I was not grieved.

4But Joseph was a good man, and having the Spirit of God in him, being compassionate and merciful, he did not hold a grudge against me, but loved me along with my brothers.

5Therefore guard yourselves, my children, from every jealousy and envy, and walk in simplicity of heart, so that God may also give you grace and glory and blessing upon your heads, just as you saw in Joseph.

6All his days he did not reproach us about this matter, but he loved us as his own soul, and honored us above his own sons, and granted us wealth and livestock and produce.

7And you also, my children, let each one love his brother with a good heart, and the spirit of envy will depart from you.

8For this makes the soul savage, and destroys the body; it brings anger and war into one’s plans, and provokes to bloodshed, and leads the mind into frenzy, and gives the soul upheaval and the body trembling.

9For even in sleep envy, presenting to him visions of wickedness, consumes him and troubles his soul with evil spirits, and makes the body shudder, and wakes the mind in turmoil; and like an evil and venomous spirit, so he appears to people.