Joshua 16
About JoshuaWritten by AI
Joshua tells how Israel, led by Moses' successor, crossed the Jordan, entered Canaan and settled the land promised to Abraham. The book does not name its author. Jewish tradition credits Joshua with most of it, while many scholars think it was shaped later. Christians also differ on when the conquest happened.
The book moves in three parts: entering and taking the land (chapters 1 to 12), dividing it among the tribes (chapters 13 to 21), and Joshua's farewell calls to stay faithful (chapters 22 to 24). Near the middle stands its summary: “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel had failed.”
The warfare is hard to read, and faithful Christians understand it in different ways. Watch for God fighting for Israel, for outsiders like Rahab and the Gibeonites who are spared, and for the quiet warnings that the work was left unfinished.
Before you read Joshua 16Written by AI
The land of Ephraim, one of the two tribes descended from Joseph, is described. It is a short chapter, but it ends with a pattern that will grow: the Canaanites of Gezer were not driven out but were put to forced labor instead.
Ephraim’s Inheritance
The allotment for the descendants of Joseph extended from the Jordan at Jericho to the waters of Jericho on the east, through the wilderness that goes up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel. It went on from Bethel (that is, Luz) and proceeded to the border of the Archites in Ataroth. Then it descended westward to the border of the Japhletites as far as the border of Lower Beth-horon and on to Gezer, and it ended at the Sea.
So Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, received their inheritance. This was the territory of the descendants of Ephraim by their clans:
The border of their inheritance went from Ataroth-addar in the east to Upper Beth-horon and out toward the Sea. From Michmethath on the north it turned eastward toward Taanath-shiloh and passed by it to Janoah on the east. From Janoah it went down to Ataroth and Naarah, and then reached Jericho and came out at the Jordan. From Tappuah the border went westward to the Brook of Kanah and ended at the Sea.
This was the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, along with all the cities and villages set apart for the descendants of Ephraim within the inheritance of Manasseh. But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, but they are forced laborers.