These were next in age to Reuben, and they also had been a grief and
shame to Jacob, when they treacherously and barbarously destroyed the
Shechemites, which he here remembers against them. Children should be
afraid of incurring their parents' just displeasure, lest they fare the
worse for it long afterwards, and, when they would inherit the
blessing, be rejected. Observe, 1. The character of Simeon and Levi:
they were brethren in disposition; but, unlike their father, they were
passionate and revengeful, fierce and uncontrollable; their swords,
which should have been only weapons of defence, were (as the margin
reads it, v. 5) weapons of violence, to do wrong to others, not to save
themselves from wrong. Note, It is no new thing for the temper of
children to differ very much from that of their parents. We need not
think this strange: it was so in Jacob's family. It is not in the power
of parents, no, not by education, to form the dispositions of their
children; Jacob bred his sons to every thing that was mild and quiet,
and yet they proved to be thus furious. 2. A proof of this is the
murder of the Shechemites, which Jacob deeply resented at the time (ch.
xxxiv. 30) and still continued to resent. They slew a man, Shechem
himself, and many others; and, to effect that, they digged down a wall,
broke the houses, to plunder them, and murder the inhabitants. Note,
The best governors cannot always restrain those under their charge from
committing the worst villanies. And when two in a family are
mischievous they commonly make one another so much the worse, and it
were wisdom to part them. Simeon and Levi, it is probable, were most
active in the wrong done to Joseph, to which some think Jacob has here
some reference; for in their anger they would have slain that man.
Observe what a mischievous thing self-will is in young people: Simeon
and Levi would not be advised by their aged and experienced father; no,
they would be governed by their own passion rather than by his
prudence. Young people would better consult their own interests if they
would less indulge their own will. 3. Jacob's protestation against this
barbarous act of theirs: O my soul, come not thou into their secret.
Hereby he professes not only his abhorrence of such practices in
general, but his innocence particularly in that matter. Perhaps he had
been suspected as, under-hand, aiding and abetting; he therefore thus
solemnly expresses his detestation of the fact, that he might not die
under that suspicion. Note, Our soul is our honour; by its powers and
faculties we are distinguished from, and dignified above, the beasts
that perish. Note, further, We ought, from our hearts, to detest and
abhor all society and confederacy with bloody and mischievous men. We
must not be ambitious of coming into their secret, or knowing the
depths of Satan. 4. His abhorrence of those brutish lusts that led them
to this wickedness: Cursed be their anger. He does not curse their
persons, but their lusts. Note, (1.) Anger is the cause and original of
a great deal of sin, and exposes us to the curse of God, and his
judgment, Matt. v. 22. (2.) We ought always, in the expressions of our
zeal, carefully to distinguish between the sinner and the sin, so as
not to love nor bless the sin for the sake of the person, nor to hate
nor curse the person for the sake of the sin. 5. A token of displeasure
which he foretells their posterity should lie under for this: I will
divide them. The Levites were scattered throughout all the tribes, and
Simeon's lot lay not together, and was so strait that many of the tribe
were forced to disperse themselves in quest of settlements and
subsistence. This curse was afterwards turned into a blessing to the
Levites; but the Simeonites, for Zimri's sin (Num. xxv. 14), had it
bound on. Note, Shameful dispersions are the just punishment of sinful
unions and confederacies.