The Simeonites Push South for New Pasture at Gedor

The Chronicler preserves a quiet snapshot of one of Simeon's last territorial expansions before the collapse of the northern kingdom — and possibly the most successful (1 Chronicles 4:39-43). In the days of King Hezekiah, Simeonite leaders identified by name pushed out "to the entrance of Gedor, to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks." They found rich grazing land there and struck down the Hamite shepherds who had been settled there since ancient times, along with the Meunim — destroying their tents and settling in their place "because there was pasture there for their flocks." From the same Simeonite expansion, five hundred men of Simeon went to Mount Seir, struck down the remnant of the Amalekites that had escaped, and settled there to this day. The expansion gives a rare picture of Simeon as a still-active tribal force in the late-eighth-century kingdom, even as the larger northern kingdom of Israel was about to fall to Assyria.

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