t12papocrypha
Testament of Simeon 3
Simeon addresses his children on the spirit of envy, naming it a consuming spiritual force that destroys its host while leaving its object untouched. He testifies from personal experience: two years of fasting in the fear of Jehovah broke envy's grip on his soul. The mechanism is precise — flight to the Lord expels the evil spirit, restores ease of mind, and transforms the envious heart into one capable of genuine goodwill toward the formerly envied. The fear of God is identified not as dread but as the operative power that displaces a spirit incompatible with covenant community.
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And now, children, take heed of the spirit of deceit and of envy. For envy ruleth over the whole mind of a man, and suffereth him neither to eat, nor to drink, nor to do any good thing: it ever suggesteth to him to destroy him that he envieth; and he that is envied ever flourisheth, but he that envieth fades away. Two years of days I afflicted my soul with fasting in the fear of the Lord, and I learnt that deliverance from envy cometh by the fear of God. If a man flee to the Lord, the evil spirit runneth away from him, and his mind becometh easy. And henceforward he sympathizeth with him whom he envied, and condemneth not those who love him, and so ceaseth from his envy.
