Joshua 16

Joshua 16  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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In Joshua 16 we have the lot of the children of Joseph, that is, of Ephraim, and the half-tribe of Manasseh (compare Gen. 48 end). They receive, in consonance with the fruitfulness of their father, the center of Canaan from Jordan to the Mediterranean. But here we find even greater failure than at the close of Joshua 15. For as it is said, the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, as was said of the Jebusites or inhabitants of Jerusalem. There was this great difference, however; that the children of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, and serve under tribute. Josephus is wrong in his way of putting the case; for he says the Benjamites, to whom belonged Jerusalem, permitted its inhabitants to pay tribute, and that the rest of the tribes, imitating Benjamin, did the same. Scripture discriminates. The men of Judah could not drive out all, the men of Ephraim did not; and these latter turned their remissness into a source of gain.