Genesis Chapter 49 verse 5 Holy Bible
Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords.
read chapter 49 in ASV
Simeon and Levi are brothers; deceit and force are their secret designs.
read chapter 49 in BBE
Simeon and Levi are brethren: Instruments of violence their swords.
read chapter 49 in DARBY
Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
read chapter 49 in KJV
Simeon and Levi are brethren: instruments of cruelty are in, their habitations.
read chapter 49 in WBT
"Simeon and Levi are brothers; Weapons of violence are their swords.
read chapter 49 in WEB
Simeon and Levi `are' brethren! Instruments of violence -- their espousals!
read chapter 49 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 5-7. - Simeon and Levi are brethren (not in parentage alone, but also in their deeds; e.g. their massacre of the Shechemites (Genesis 34:25), to which undoubtedly the next words allude); instruments of cruelty are in their habitations - literally, instruments of violence their מְכֵדֹת, a ἅπαξ λεγόμ. which has been variously rendered (1) their dwellings, or habitations (Kimchi, A. V., Calvin, Ainsworth), in the land of their sojourning (Onkelos), for which, however, there does not seem to be much authority; (2) their machinations or wicked counsels, deriving from מָכַר, to string together, to take in a net, to ensnare (Nahum 3:4), the cognate Arabic root signifying to deceive or practice stratagems (De Dieu, Schultens, Castelli, Tayler Lewis, and others); (3) their betrothals, or compacts of marriage, connecting with the same root as the preceding in the sense of "binding together" (Dathius, Clericus, Michaelis, Knobel, Furst, et alii); . . .
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) Simeon and Levi are brethren.--That is, they are alike in character and disposition. Despising the feeble Reuben, they seem to have been close friends and allies, and probably tried to exercise a tyrannical authority over their younger brethren, Judah being the only one near them in age.Their habitations.--This translation is universally abandoned, but there is much difference of opinion as to the real meaning of the word. The most probable explanation is that given by Jerome and Rashi, who render it swords. Apparently it is the Greek word machaera, a knife; and as neither the Hebrews nor the Canaanites were metallurgists, such articles�were imported by merchants from Ionia. Long before the days of Jacob, caravans of traders traversed the whole country, and the goods which they brought would carry with them their own foreign names. The sentence, therefore, should be translated, "weapons of violence are their knives." The other meaning given by some competent critics, namely, compacts, if the word could be formed at all from the supposed root, would mean marriage contracts, and this gives no intelligible sense.