Joshua 16:1-10
1 And the lot of the children of Joseph fella from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout mount Bethel,
2 And goeth out from Bethel to Luz, and passeth along unto the borders of Archi to Ataroth,
3 And goeth down westward to the coast of Japhleti, unto the coast of Bethhoron the nether, and to Gezer: and the goings out thereof are at the sea.
4 So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.
5 And the border of the children of Ephraim according to their families was thus: even the border of their inheritance on the east side was Atarothaddar, unto Bethhoron the upper;
6 And the border went out toward the sea to Michmethah on the north side; and the border went about eastward unto Taanathshiloh, and passed by it on the east to Janohah;
7 And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.
8 The border went out from Tappuah westward unto the river Kanah; and the goings out thereof were at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim by their families.
9 And the separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.
10 And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute.
Joshua 16:1. The water of Jericho. These waters being bitter, Elisha obtained by his prayers the power to heal them by a handful of salt. 2 Kings 2:21.
Joshua 16:2. Beth-el to Luz. Luz was the town, Beth-el a place of trees adjoining, where Jacob saw the vision. Genesis 28:19.
Joshua 16:8. The sea, or the salt sea, the Mediterranean: the sea of Sodom was Asphaltic.
Joshua 16:9. Among the inheritance of Manasseh. Ephraim's possessions indented into the district of Manasseh. To divide possessions was difficult.
REFLECTIONS.
The conduct of Ephraim in this chapter brands his character with everlasting reproach, and furnishes instruction to us. Joseph's children were almost the only tribe that made complaint concerning the deficiency of their lot, Joshua 17:14; and yet, strange as it may appear, Ephraim made a league with the Canaanites in Gezer, and received their tribute. Hereby he transgressed the law so often repeated, that Israel was to make no covenant with them or their gods. So they remained till the king of Egypt drove them out, and gave the district as a portion to his daughter, on her marriage with Solomon. This is not the worst. Ephraim, long corrupted by those ungodly neighbours, was the first to forsake the true religion, and to worship the calf in Beth-el. Let the christian world receive instruction from this sad case. That man, who, instead of crucifying the flesh, and executing on his sins the required vengeance of God; that man who shall basely make a covenant with his sins, will find them awful to his soul at a future day. The dallying with but one sin, (and the sacred writings abound with examples) may give him in the hour of temptation an awful wound. And what can he expect but Ephraim's punishment, when he turns coward in the warfare with the flesh, and basely accepts a tribute of pleasure or of profit from his sins.