SIMEON, THE TERRITORY OF,

SIM'EON, THE TERRITORY OF, the south-western portion of the Promised Land. The district assigned to Simeon lay within the inheritance of Judah, and included eighteen cities in the South of Palestine around the well of Beer-sheba. Josh 19:1-9; 1 Chr 4:28-33. On its entrance to the Promised Land, Simeon was the smallest of all the tribes, having at that time only 22,200 able-bodied men. Num 26:14. At a later date some of the towns within its territory were possessed by Judah, as Hormah and Beer-sheba, while Ziklag became a Philistine, and then a Judaean, town. 1 Sam 27:6; 1 Sam 30:30; 1 Kgs 19:3. After the division of the kingdom the territory of this tribe appears to have been subject to many changes, as the population was partly in fellowship with the northern kingdom, though it seems to have shared in the reformation under Asa and Josiah. 2 Chr 15:9; 2 Chr 34:6.