Joshua 16:5 - Meaning and Application

Here, the border of Ephraim is described. It divided Ephraim on the south from Benjamin and Dan, who lay between Ephraim and Judah, and on the north from Manasseh. On the east and west, it stretched from the Jordan River to the great sea. Scholars who try to draw the line exactly from these directions find it very hard, because the description is brief and hard to follow. Even modern travelers cannot fully solve the problem, because the land has changed so much since then. Many cities have been ruined beyond recognition, brooks have dried up, rivers have shifted course, and even mountains and rocks have changed, as Job says, “the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place” (Job 14:18). Still, there is no need to press these details too far. The boundary was well understood at the time, and the point of recording it was to mark the old landmarks, which later generations were not to move.

Some separate cities are also mentioned. They seem not to have fallen inside Ephraim’s border if the line is drawn straight, but were in Manasseh’s allotment (Joshua 16:9). The verse may mean that there were cities set apart for Ephraim within the inheritance of Manasseh, because Manasseh had room to spare and Ephraim needed them. Since both tribes were sons of Joseph, they should live together in brotherly peace, and no trouble should come from this shared arrangement. This also shows how the numbers of the tribes changed over time. When they were counted on the plains of Moab, Manasseh had more people than Ephraim, with 52,000 compared to 32,000 (Numbers 26:34, Numbers 26:37). But by the time they were settled in Canaan, the order was reversed again, and Moses’ blessing came true: “They are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh” (Deuteronomy 33:17). God can raise up or bring down families and kingdoms as he chooses.

A mark of shame is added to Ephraim here, because they did not drive out the Canaanites from Gezer (Joshua 16:10). This may have come from carelessness or fear, from lack of faith in God’s promise of victory, or from lack of zeal for God’s command to drive the Canaanites out completely and make no peace with them. They may have thought they were obeying the law by making them pay tribute, but Calvin thought this made the matter worse, because it showed greed, since they wanted to profit from their labor. It also put them in danger of being infected by the Canaanites’ idolatry. Some think that by putting them under tribute, the Israelites required them to give up their idols and keep the seven basic laws given to Noah, but the later history of Israel suggests the opposite, because the Israelites soon fell into idolatry themselves.

Many well-known places were within Ephraim’s territory, though they are not all named here. Ramah, Samuel’s city, was there, and in later times it was called Arimathea, the town of Joseph who cared for Jesus’ burial. Shiloh was there too, where the tabernacle was first set up. Tirzah, the royal city of Jeroboam and his successors, and Deborah’s palm tree, where she judged Israel, were also in this tribe. Samaria, built by Omri after the royal palace at Tirzah was burned, was in Ephraim and later became the capital of the northern kingdom. Not far away were Shechem, Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, and Sychar, near Jacob’s well, where Christ spoke with the woman of Samaria (John 11:54). We often read about Mount Ephraim in the book of Judges, and there was also a city called Ephraim, likely in this tribe, where Christ later withdrew. In the prophets, especially Hosea, the whole kingdom of the ten tribes is often called Ephraim.