Joshua 16:5

Ver. 5. And the border of the children of Ephraim, &c.— After marking out the south, east, and west boundaries of the tribe of Ephraim, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, referring to ch. Judges 17:7 the description of its northern limits, the author proceeds to a more exact designation of the extent of the territories of Ephraim; and first he sets out at large the breadth from south to north, or the north-east borders at the broadest part: All we can say respecting which is, that Ataroth-addar was on the south, and Upper Beth-horon on the north-east of that tribe. We are not to expect any satisfactory account respecting this article: the Sacred History is too concise to be extended now, when every thing in the Holy Land is transposed. We can scarcely meet with the ruins of any of some cities which formerly figured there, nor discover the least traces of others. The floods which watered some places are now exhausted and dry; its rivers have taken another course: in a word, it is no longer the same country; and where the descriptions of Sacred Writ are not circumstantiated in the clearest manner, we can only supply them by conjectures more or less probable. Here, for instance, commentators rather guess than conjecture; and therefore we prefer being silent, to following so vague a method.