There are going to be lots of themes throughout Numbers. I’ll try to hit as many as I can without going insane, but one that might fly under the radar for most of us is the dramatic decrease in the lineage of Simeon.
In Numbers 1:23, the amount of people in his tribe is 59,300. Not bad. That places him actually near the top in terms of tribal population.
By the time you get to Numbers 26:14 though, his tribe has shrunk to 22,200. For the math-minded people—we are in numbers, after all—that’s about a 63% decrease in population. Conversely, the tribe of Manasseh actually rose by 64% (32,200 to 52,700), but that’s a different story for a different time.
Why does Simeon fall by so much? One possible reason is the curse that Jacob placed on his family in Genesis 49:5-7. Because of their violence with the men of Shechem who raped Dinah, Jacob tells him that they will be “dispersed in Jacob” and “scattered in Israel.”
That’s exactly what happened. In Joshua 19:9, we find out that Simeon doesn’t even get a territory to himself. Instead, it’s inside the land of Judah. That’s where he remains; his tribe is essentially lost to history.
To be fair, it wasn’t just Simeon that was cursed—Levi was told the exact same thing for the exact same reason. However, his scattering and dispersing occurred in a priestly way. Levi’s tribe didn’t get a large chunk of land to himself, but he did get levitical cities “scattered” throughout Canaan. His is a redemption story, whereas Simeon’s is one of dissolution.
The other possible reason for Simeon’s decline is his assumed leadership in the sin of Balaam. Numbers 25:14 singles out “Zimri, the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s household among the Simeonites” as the one who committed sexual immorality with the Midianite woman at Peor. The Text seems to hint that this Zimri was a major influence in Israel’s sin.
In truth, it’s probably a combination of those two factors, plus a few more issues that we’re not privy to. But Simeon’s decline shows a very literal effect of sin in real-time. His descendants not only decreased, but what little there was got assimilated into the rest of the people. Eventually, just like those without God, they were lost.
