Shimei

The name Shimei is borne by a great many men in the Hebrew Bible, scattered across genealogies, court lists, Levitical rosters, and the post-exilic record. The dominant figure is the Benjamite of the house of Saul who cursed David during Absalom's revolt and was eventually executed by Solomon, but more than a dozen others share the name.

Shimei Son of Gershon

A first Shimei stands at the head of one of the principal Levitical families. He is named as a son of Gershon (Gershom), brother of Libni, and his line is traced through the Levitical lists. "The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, according to their families" (Ex 6:17); "And these are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei" (Nu 3:18); "And these are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei" (1Ch 6:17). The Chronicler reorganizes the same line under the heading of Ladan: "Of the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei" (1Ch 23:7), and lists his descendants as "Jahath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei" (1Ch 23:10).

Shimei the Benjamite Who Cursed David

The most extended narrative belongs to Shimei the son of Gera, "a man of the family of the house of Saul" (2Sa 16:5). As David flees Jerusalem before Absalom and arrives at Bahurim, this Shimei comes out to meet him with stones and curses, calling him "you man of blood, and base fellow" and charging that "Yahweh has returned on you all the blood of the house of Saul" (2Sa 16:7-8). Abishai offers to behead him — "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?" (2Sa 16:9) — but David refuses, saying, "Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, Curse David; who then will say, Why have you done so?" (2Sa 16:10), and again, "Leave him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has bidden him. It may be that Yahweh will look at the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for [his] cursing of me this day" (2Sa 16:11-12). Shimei keeps pace with the column on the opposite hillside, "and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust" (2Sa 16:13).

After Absalom's defeat, Shimei reverses course. "Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David" (2Sa 19:16). David receives his plea of repentance and binds himself by oath: "And the king said to Shimei, You will not die. And the king swore to him" (2Sa 19:23).

Solomon, however, is not bound. He summons Shimei and confines him to Jerusalem on pain of death: "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and don't go forth from there anywhere... on the day you go out, and pass over the brook Kidron, know you for certain that you will surely die" (1Ki 2:36-37). Shimei accepts the condition — "The saying is good: as my lord the king has said, so will your slave do" (1Ki 2:38) — and lives in Jerusalem for three years. Then two of his slaves run away to Achish king of Gath, and Shimei "saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish, to seek his slaves; and Shimei went, and brought his slaves from Gath" (1Ki 2:40). Solomon recalls him, recites the original oath, and adds the deeper charge: "You know all the wickedness which your heart is privy to, that you did to David my father: therefore Yahweh will return your wickedness on your own head. But King Solomon will be blessed, and the throne of David will be established before Yahweh forever" (1Ki 2:44-45). "So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out, and fell on him, so that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon" (1Ki 2:46).

Shimei in David's and Solomon's Inner Circle

A different Shimei stands among the loyalists who refuse to join Adonijah's bid for the throne: "Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah" (1Ki 1:8). Another, "Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin" (1Ki 4:18), is named among Solomon's twelve commissary officers who provisioned the royal household by the month. A third, "Shimei the Ramathite" (1Ch 27:27), appears in David's administrative list as the steward over the vineyards.

Shimei in the Tribal and Levitical Lists

Several other men named Shimei surface across the genealogies of Chronicles. A grandson of Jeconiah is listed in the Davidic line: "And the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel, and Shimei" (1Ch 3:19). A Simeonite Shimei is shown with an unusually fertile household: "Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brothers did not have many sons, neither did all their family multiply like the sons of Judah" (1Ch 4:26-27). A Reubenite Shimei son of Gog appears in the line of Joel (1Ch 5:4). A Merarite Shimei son of Libni stands in the priestly genealogies (1Ch 6:29), and a Gershonite Shimei is named as the grandfather of Asaph through Zimmah and Ethan (1Ch 6:42). A Benjamite Shimei is identified as the head of a family — "Adaiah, and Beraiah, and Shimrath, the sons of Shimei" (1Ch 8:21).

Inside the Levitical organization, a Shimei appears as head of a clan under Ladan: "The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, and Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers' [houses] of Ladan" (1Ch 23:9). Another Shimei is the tenth lot in the rotation of David's musical guild: "the tenth to Shimei, his sons and his brothers, twelve" (1Ch 25:17). And a son of Heman is named in Hezekiah's reform: "of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel" (2Ch 29:14).

Shimei Under Hezekiah

In Hezekiah's reform a Levitical Shimei serves as deputy to Conaniah over the storehouses of tithes and offerings: "over them Conaniah the Levite was leader, and Shimei his brother was second" (2Ch 31:12). The pair are placed in charge of a roster of overseers "by the appointment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the leader of the house of God" (2Ch 31:13).

Shimei in the Post-Exilic Community

Three Shimeis are named in Ezra's list of those who put away foreign wives: a Levite — "And of the Levites: Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (the same is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer" (Ezr 10:23) — and two laymen, one of the sons of Hashum (Ezr 10:33) and one among "Bani, and Binnui, Shimei" (Ezr 10:38).

Shimei the Ancestor of Mordecai

A Benjamite Shimei stands in Mordecai's pedigree: "There was a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite" (Es 2:5). The genealogical link to Kish places this Shimei in the same tribal stream as the house of Saul.

The Family of the Shimeites

Zechariah's vision of mourning over the pierced one names the Shimeites among the families set apart in lamentation: "the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart" (Zec 12:13). This family may go back to the first Shimei, son of Gershon, the Levitical clan-head with whom this list begins.