Joshua 17:7 - Meaning and Application

We have here a brief account of the land that fell to this half tribe. It stretched from the Jordan River on the east to the Great Sea on the west. On the south, it ran along the border of Ephraim, and on the north it touched Asher and Issachar.

Asher lay to the northwest, and Issachar to the northeast. That seems to be the sense of Joshua 17:10, where Manasseh and Ephraim, together making the tribe of Joseph, are said to meet Asher on the north and Issachar on the east. This does not mean Ephraim itself reached those tribes, but that the wider territory of Joseph did.

A few things stand out about this allotment. One is the close connection between Manasseh and Ephraim. The city of Tappuah belonged to Ephraim, but the land around it belonged to Manasseh (Joshua 17:8). There were also many cities of Ephraim inside Manasseh’s border (Joshua 17:9), as had already been noted in Joshua 16:9.

Another point is that Manasseh also had cities with their pasturelands in Issachar and Asher (Joshua 17:11). God arranged it this way so that, although each tribe had its own inheritance and could not sell it off, the tribes would still live near one another. This would keep them in contact and give them chances to do good for each other, since they were all one Israel and should love one another as brothers.

A sad note is that they allowed the Canaanites to stay among them, against God’s command, because it suited their own interests to put up with them. They made them pay tribute instead of driving them out (Joshua 17:12-13). Ephraim had done the same thing (Joshua 16:10), and Manasseh may have copied them and then used their example to excuse themselves. The most notable man from this half tribe in later times was Gideon, whose great deeds took place within this territory. He belonged to the family of Abiezer. Caesarea was also in this lot, and so was Antipatris, a city known in later Jewish history.