5 By the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one [portion].
The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh; but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim. The border went down to the brook of Kanah, southward of the brook: these cities belonged to Ephraim among the cities of Manasseh: and the border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook, and the goings out of it were at the sea: southward it was Ephraim's, and northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea was his border; and they reached to Asher on the north, and to Issachar on the east.
The children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given me but one lot and one part for an inheritance, seeing I am a great people, because hitherto Yahweh has blessed me? Joshua said to them, If you are a great people, go up to the forest, and cut down for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim; since the hill-country of Ephraim is too narrow for you. The children of Joseph said, The hill-country is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are in Beth-shean and its towns, and they who are in the valley of Jezreel. Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, You are a great people, and have great power; you shall not have one lot only: but the hill-country shall be yours; for though it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and the goings out of it shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.
The lot came out for the children of Joseph from the Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, even the wilderness, going up from Jericho through the hill-country to Bethel; and it went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth; and it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Beth Horon the lower, even to Gezer; and the goings out of it were at the sea. The children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance. The border of the children of Ephraim according to their families was [thus]: the border of their inheritance eastward was Ataroth Addar, to Beth Horon the upper; and the border went out westward at Michmethath on the north; and the border turned about eastward to Taanath Shiloh, and passed along it on the east of Janoah; and it went down from Janoah to Ataroth, and to Naarah, and reached to Jericho, and went out at the Jordan. From Tappuah the border went along westward to the brook of Kanah; and the goings out of it were at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families; together with the cities which were set apart for the children of Ephraim in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages. They didn't drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell in the midst of Ephraim to this day, and are become servants to do forced labor.
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Commentary on Ezekiel 48 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 48
Eze 48:1-35. Allotment of the Land to the Several Tribes.
1. Dan—The lands are divided into portions of ideal exactness, running alongside of each other, the whole breadth from west to east, standing in a common relation to the temple in the center: seven tribes' portions on the north, five in the smaller division in the south. The portions of the city, the temple, the prince, and the priesthood, are in the middle, not within the boundaries of any tribe, all alike having a common interest in them. Judah has the place of honor next the center on the north, Benjamin the corresponding place of honor next the center on the south; because of the adherence of these two to the temple ordinances and to the house of David for so long, when the others deserted them. Dan, on the contrary, so long locally and morally semi-heathen (Jud 18:1-31), is to have the least honorable place, at the extreme north. For the same reason, St. John (Re 7:5-8) omits Dan altogether.
3. Asher—a tribe of which no one of note is mentioned in the Old Testament. In the New Testament one is singled out of it, the prophetess Anna.
4. Manasseh—The intercourse and unity between the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan, and the nine and a half west of it, had been much kept up by the splitting of Manasseh, causing the visits of kinsmen one to the other from both sides of the Jordan. There shall be no need for this in the new order of things.
5. Ephraim—This tribe, within its two dependent tribes, Manasseh and Benjamin, for upwards of four hundred years under the judges held the pre-eminence.
6. Reuben—doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel" (Ge 49:4). So no distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from it. Of it were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the mutineers. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked it and Gad (Jud 5:16).
15-17. The five thousand rods, apportioned to the city out of the twenty-five thousand square, are to be laid off in a square of four thousand five hundred, with the two hundred fifty all around for suburbs.
profane—that is, not strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular uses.
24. Benjamin—Compare Jacob's prophecy (Ge 49:27; De 33:12). It alone with Judah had been throughout loyal to the house of David, so its prowess at the "night" of the national history was celebrated as well as in the "morning."
25. Simeon—omitted in the blessing of Moses in De 33:1-29, perhaps because of the Simeonite "prince," who at Baal-peor led the Israelites in their idolatrous whoredoms with Midian (Nu 25:14).
26. Issachar—Its ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon. Compared (Ge 49:14) to "a strong ass crouching between two burdens," that is, tribute and tillage; never meddling with wars except in self-defense.
31. gates—(Re 21:12, &c.). The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes to imply that all are regarded as having an interest in it.
35. Lord is there—Jehovah-Shammah. Not that the city will be called so in mere name, but that the reality will be best expressed by this descriptive title (Jer 3:17; 33:16; Zec 2:10; Re 21:3; 22:3).