nacle (sockets, fillets, hooks, etc.), of the trumpets of the priests, and of many of the sacred ve-ssels of the temple. Vessels of silver were a form of votive ottering (Nu T passim), and were part of tho furniture of wealthj' private houses (2 Ti 2^). Josephs divining cup was of silver ((in 44^-). This metAl was used tor chains (Is 40'") and orna- ments ('jewels,' Gn24"; ' pictures,' Pr25"). Silver •shrines,' or models of the temple of Diana, werii largelj- made and sold at Ephesus (Ac 19"). Silvei mines are referred to in Job 28', and the process of refining is alluded to in Pr 17* 27" 25^ Zee IS', Mai 3' etc. It is described with special fulness in Jer 6^*" (where it is represented as fruitless) and in Ezk 22""*'. In both of these passages .special emphasis is laid on I he presence of lead among the other metallic ores. These other metals and the impurities combined with them are the ' dross ' of silver. 2 Ch 9" tells how Solomon obtained silver from Arabia. Tarshish is named as the source of the metal in 2 Ch Q'", Jtr 10', Ezk 27'^ the second of these passages referring specially to the silver being ' spre.id into plates.' In 1 Mac 8' the acquisition of the Spanish mines by tho Romans is mentioned. Silversmiths are mentioned in \Vis 15" (apyvpoxios) and Ac 19'''* (ipyvpoKdiros). Tliere was a guild of this craft at Ephesus, of which in St. Paul's day Demetrius was a leading member. In LXX ipyiipoKbiros is the tr. of "Ji's ('founder,' Jg 17*) and of '■y^ (AV ' founder,' RV [as inf. abs.] ' refine,' Jer 6^, where also fif = ipr/vpoKOTretv), ' Silver plate' is the equivalent of apyipa^a in J tli 12' 15", 1 ^Iac 15'^ The plumage of doves in snnlifjht is described in Ps GS'^ as ' wings covered with silver.' Wisdom and instruction are frequently compared for preciousness to pure silver, as are also the words of God (Ps 12"). The refining of silver is a figure for the discipline of tiie righteous (Ps 06"', cf. also Is 48'"). Silver turned to dross is a metaphor for moral deterioration (Is l'", Jer &"). For questions connected with currency and coin- age see Money.
LiTEKATrRB.— Polybios, xxxlv. e ; Pliny, nS xxxiiL 23, 81 ; Enn;iM, Life in Ancimt Kf/i/pt, 461 ; Layardj SineL't'h, iL 264; Perrot and Chipiez, But, 0/ Art in Sardinia^ Judcea, etc. ii. 2ta ; lluMiilton, Knearchet, L 2S4 ff. ; Del Jlar, Hist, of Precimu MefaU, tilSL ; Sdirader aud Jevous, Prthietoric Antiquities,
isufl. James Patrick.
8ILVERLING.— See Money in vol. iiL p. 432*.
SIMEON d'll'c?'; LXX and NT SuMeiix, whence RV form usually employed in NT, Syraeon). — A common name amongst the Jews, esp. in its later (Greek) form Simon (see art. Peter (Simon), ad init.). The Heb. name is used of — 1. The second son of Jacob and Leah, Gn 29". The etymology, or at all events the original signification of the name, is unknown. J, in Gn 29"''", characteristi- ca'ly derives it from j;';?' ( = 'hear'), and reports that ' Leah said. Because the Loiu) hath heard (shdmd) that I am hated, he hath therefore given me this son also, and she called hLs name Simeon (Shinidn).' Only two incidents in the history of Simeon are related in the Book of (ienesis. In conjunction with his brother Levi he is said to have mas.sacred the Shechemites in revenge for the dishonour of his sister Dinah (Gn 34). The details of the story are obscure, and are drawn from several sources, whose standpoint is not always the same. The real significance of this narrative we shall seek to appreciate in art. SiMicoN (TninE). The other occa.sion upon which Simeon b mentioned is when Joseph determined to detain one of his brothers in Egypt as security that tliey would return with Benjamin (Gn 42**). From tho circum- stance that Simeon is selected for this purpose, it has been supposed that the narrator means to insinuate that he had been the chief actor in the
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SIMEON
tragedy that led to .Joseph's servitude in E^'ypt. The truciJeut character of Simeon, as vouched lor by the massacre at Sheclieiii, miglit also be sup- posed to furnish the justilication for his severe treatment; but it is questionable whether the narrator (E) of his detention in Egypt had any sucli reference in his mind, seeing that among the sources of Gn 34 E has no place, and consequently he may have been ignorant of that story. It is more probable that in Gn 42'-^ Simeon the second son of Jacob is detained as a hostage rather than Keuben the firitborn, because the latter, according to E (Gn 37'^), had acted a more friendly part than tlie rest of Joseph's brethren, and had sought to deliver him out of their hands.
The rape of Diiiah and the massacre of the Shechemites were commemorated in verse by the Jewish or Samaritan poet Theodotus (c. 200 B.C.). It is instructive to compare the judg- ment pxssed uitoii the act of the two brothers in Gn 49 (cf. 34% with what we find in some of the literary productions of post- exilian Judaism. Words of disapproval and severe censure ^'ive place in th.- latter to hearty approval and warm eulogr>*. The con- trast is strikin^dy displayed in the Uook of Judith, whose heroine belongs to the tribe of Simeon, and whose estimate of the char- acter and conduct of her progenitor is as different from that ascribed to Jacob in Genesis as her language is oSeiuive to good taste (Jth O-f- ; cf. Book oj Jubilees, ch. 30).