Catholic Commentary
Census of Simeon
12The sons of Simeon after their families: of Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites; of Jamin, the family of the Jaminites; of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites;13of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites; of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites.14These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty-two thousand two hundred.
Numbers 26:12–14 records the second census of Israel, listing the five clans descended from Simeon with their respective populations. Simeon's count of 22,200 represents a dramatic 63 percent decline from the first census, reflecting the tribe's severe losses from the plague following Israel's apostasy at Baal-Peor in Numbers 25.
Simeon lost 63% of its fighting men as the price of apostasy—yet God still counts it, still names it, still grants it an inheritance.
Numbers 26:12 — The Sons of Simeon and Their Clan Names The census formula here is precise and liturgical in its repetition: "of [name], the family of the [name]ites." This is not bureaucratic tedium but covenantal record-keeping. Each clan name corresponds to a son of Simeon listed in Genesis 46:10 and Exodus 6:15, though with minor variations: "Nemuel" appears here instead of "Jemuel" (Gen 46:10; Ex 6:15), likely a textual variant or a later honorific adaptation. "Jamin" (meaning "right hand" or "good fortune") and "Jachin" (meaning "He will establish") are names that carry their own implicit theological weight — names were not incidental in ancient Israel but participatory in identity and destiny.
Numbers 26:13 — Zerah and Shaul "Zerah" (meaning "rising" or "shining") connects this Simeonite figure to a broader naming pattern in the tribal genealogies; a Zerah also appears among the sons of Judah (Gen 38:30), suggesting the kind of inter-tribal naming resonance the ancient reader would have noted. "Shaul" is identified in Genesis 46:10 and Exodus 6:15 as the son of a Canaanite woman — a detail the narrator suppressed here but that an ancient audience may have remembered, hinting at the complexity of Israel's ethnic and covenantal identity even within its founding families.
Numbers 26:14 — The Total: Twenty-Two Thousand Two Hundred The theological weight of this census falls on the number itself. In Numbers 1:23, Simeon numbered 59,300 — making it one of the larger tribes at the first census. Here, at 22,200, Simeon has lost roughly 37,000 men, a staggering decline of nearly 63%. No other tribe fell so dramatically. The narrative context is deliberate: Numbers 25 recounts Israel's sin at Baal-Peor, where Israelites committed sexual immorality with Moabite women and worshipped their gods. The leader of that apostasy, identified in 25:14 as Zimri son of Salu, was "a leader of a Simeonite father's house." The plague that followed killed 24,000 (Num 25:9). The census thus becomes a living memorial of the consequences of infidelity — Simeon's near-collapse is a demographic scar left by sin.
Yet the tribe is still counted. Still named. Still given a portion in the inheritance. The typological reading here is essential: diminishment by sin does not mean erasure from the covenant. Simeon is reduced but not removed. This mirrors a consistent pattern in salvation history — the remnant theology that runs from the prophets (Is 10:20–22) through Paul (Rom 11:5) — whereby God preserves a faithful core even when the larger body falls away. Simeon's five clans, walking chastened into Canaan, anticipate every penitent community that enters the Kingdom not in triumph but in humility.
The Catholic tradition reads genealogical and census passages not merely as historical records but as testimonies to God's fidelity to a named, particular people. The Catechism teaches that God's covenant is not abstract but personal — "God calls each one by name" (CCC 203, echoing Is 43:1). The meticulous enumeration of Simeon's clans reflects this divine particularity: each family, however diminished, retains its covenantal identity before God.
The dramatic decline of Simeon carries profound moral-theological significance. St. Augustine, in De Civitate Dei, repeatedly observes that sin inscribes its consequences into history — the visible order bears the marks of moral disorder. Simeon's census is a concrete illustration of this principle: the wages of idolatry and sexual immorality (Num 25) are not merely spiritual but social and numerical.
From the perspective of typology, the Church Fathers saw in the twelve tribes a prefiguration of the Church. Origen (Homilies on Numbers, Hom. XXVI) interprets the census as an allegory of souls being "numbered" by God for the heavenly inheritance. Those who persevere in faith are enrolled; those who fall away diminish the Body. This anticipates the Catholic teaching on the communion of saints and the reality that sin harms not only the individual but the whole Body of Christ (CCC 953).
St. Jerome noted the significance of Simeon's later absorption into Judah's territory (Jos 19:1–9) as a kind of penitential incorporation — the tribe that sinned most grievously ends up most dependent on its brother. Catholic social teaching echoes this: communities weakened by moral failure are called to deeper solidarity, not isolation.
For the contemporary Catholic, the census of Simeon offers a counterintuitive consolation: God counts us even after our failures. In an age when Catholic parishes face declining numbers — sometimes as a direct result of moral failures within the community — the temptation is either despair ("we are too few and too wounded") or denial ("the numbers don't matter"). Simeon refuses both responses. The tribe is counted honestly — 22,200, not a rounded-up fiction — and is still granted an inheritance.
This passage also invites the Catholic to take seriously the communal consequences of personal sin. Zimri's very public apostasy did not stay private; it cost thousands their lives and his tribe its standing. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Church reminds us that sin always has a social dimension (CCC 1469). Confession is not merely personal hygiene — it is the restoration of a member to the Body.
Practically: bring an honest accounting of your failures to God, as Simeon's numbers are brought honestly before Moses. Do not inflate your spiritual standing, but do not despair of your place in God's inheritance.
Commentary