who is ephraim in the bible

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Ephraim

Ephraim (/ˈɛfraɪjiːm/; Hebrew: אֶפְרָיִם/אֶפְרַיִם‎, ʾEfrayim) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph and Asenath. Asenath was an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph as wife. And the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On. Ephraim was born in Egypt before the arrival of the children of Israel from Canaan.

The Book of Numbers lists three sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, Beker, and Tahan. However, 1 Chronicles 7 lists eight sons, including Ezer and Elead. Who were killed in an attempt to steal cattle from the locals. After their deaths he had another son, Beriah. He was the ancestor of Joshua, son of Nun, the leader of the Israelite tribes in the conquest of Canaan.

According to the biblical narrative, Jeroboam. Who became the first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, was also from the house of Ephraim.

Biblical criticism

The Book of Genesis related the name “Ephraim” to a Hebrew word for “being fruitful”, referring to Joseph’s ability to produce children, specifically while in Egypt (termed by the Torah as the land of his affliction).

In the biblical account, Joseph’s other son is Manasseh. And Joseph himself is one of the two children of Rachel and Jacob, the other being Benjamin. Biblical scholars regard it as obvious, from their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages. That originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe – that of Joseph. According to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was originally part of the suggested Ephraim-Manasseh single “Joseph” tribe, but the biblical account of Joseph as his father became lost.

Bible Students

A number of biblical scholars suspect that the distinction of the Joseph tribes (including Benjamin) is that they were the only Israelites which went to Egypt and returned. While the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaanites and had remained in Canaan throughout. According to this view, the story of Jacob’s visit to Laban to obtain a wife originated as a metaphor for this migration, with the property and family which were gained from Laban representing the gains of the Joseph tribes by the time they returned from Egypt; according to textual scholars, the Jahwist version of the Laban narrative only mentions the Joseph tribes. And Rachel, and does not mention the other tribal matriarchs at all.

The tribe of Ephraim from Jacob

In the Torah, the eventual precedence of the tribe of Ephraim is argued to derive from Jacob, blind and on his deathbed, blessing Ephraim before Manasseh.The text describing this blessing features a hapax legomenon – the word שכל (sh-k-l) – which classical rabbinical literature has interpreted in esoteric manners; some rabbinical sources connect the term with sekel, meaning mind/wisdom, and view it as indicating that Jacob was entirely aware of who he was actually blessing; other rabbinical sources connect the term with shikkel, viewing it as signifying that Jacob was despoiling Manasseh in favour of Ephraim.

Yet other rabbinical sources argue that it refers to the power of Jacob to instruct and guide the holy spirit. In classical rabbinical sources, Ephraim is described as being modest and not selfish. These rabbinical sources allege that it was on account of modesty and selflessness, and a prophetic vision of Joshua, that Jacob gave Ephraim precedence over Manasseh, the elder of the two; in these sources Jacob is regarded as being sufficiently just that God upholds the blessing in his honour. And makes Ephraim the leading tribe.

Twelve Tribes of Israel

Twelve Tribes of Israel, in the Bible, the Hebrew people who, after the death of Moses, took possession of the Promised Land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. Because the tribes were named after sons or grandsons of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel after he wrestled an angel of the Lord, the Hebrew people became known as Israelites.

Jacob’s first wife, Leah, bore him six sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Each was the father of a tribe, though Levi’s descendants (among whom were Moses and Aaron). The priests and temple functionaries, were dispersed among the other tribes and received no tribal land of their own. Two other tribes, Gad and Asher, were named after sons born to Jacob and Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant.

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Dan and Naphtali tribes

Two additional tribes, Dan and Naphtali, were named after sons of Jacob born of Bilhah, the maidservant of Rachel, Jacob’s second wife. Rachel bore Jacob two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. The tribe of Benjamin provided Israel with its first king, Saul, and was later assimilated into the tribe of Judah. While no tribe bore the name of Joseph, two tribes were named after Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The 10 tribes that settled in northern Palestine and were carried into captivity by the Assyrians became known as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, 10 of the original 12 Hebrew tribes, which, under the leadership of Joshua, took possession of Canaan, the Promised Land, after the death of Moses. They were named Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun—all sons or grandsons of Jacob. In 930 BC the 10 tribes formed the independent Kingdom of Israel in the north and the two other tribes, Judah and Benjamin, set up the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

Following the conquest of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 721 BC, the 10 tribes were gradually assimilated by other peoples and thus disappeared from history. Nevertheless, a belief persisted that one day the Ten Lost Tribes would be found. Eldad ha-Dani, for instance, a 9th-century Jewish traveler, reported locating the tribes “beyond the rivers of Abyssinia” on the far side of an impassable river called Sambation, a roaring torrent of stones that becomes subdued only on the sabbath, when Jews are not permitted to travel.

1604–57

Manasseh ben Israel (1604–57) used the legend of the lost tribes in pleading successfully for admission of Jews into England during Oliver Cromwell’s regime. Peoples who at various times were said to be descendants of the lost tribes include the Assyrian Christians, the Mormons, the Afghans, the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, the American Indians, and the Japanese. Among the numerous immigrants to the State of Israel since its establishment in 1948 were a few who likewise claimed to be remnants of the Ten Lost Tribes. The descendants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin have survived as Jews because they were allowed to return to their homeland after the Babylonian Exile of 586 BC.

Jealous tribe

The tribe, taking its role as the leader of Israel a bit too seriously, took on a spirit of jealousy . And rivalry when its status was not recognized. They severely chastised Gideon for not including them in his fight against the Midianites, even though God only needed three hundred men to defeat them (Judges 8:1 – 3).

When God used Jephthah to defeat the Ammonites, the Ephraimites protested that they were not called to help (Judges 12:1). They protested in spite of the fact that they rejected an earlier request for assistance against the enemy. They pressed the issue so strongly that Jephthah and the Gileadites had to fight and kill 42,000 of them for their demands to cease (verses 2 – 6)!

New Testament visit

Jesus, toward the end of his life, travelled to the city of Ephraim to avoid threats against his life (John 11:54).

Important verses

Person

Genesis 41:52
And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.

And the name of the second called he Ephraim. For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

Genesis 48:20
And he (Jacob) blessed them that day, saying. In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh . . .

Tribal name

Joshua 16:5
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.

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Mountain range

Joshua 17:15
And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country. And cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.

Forest

2Samuel 18:5 – 6
And the king (David) commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom . . . So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim . . .

At the time Ephraim lived the neighbors of the Israelites, the Phoenicians, worshipped Baal, Moloch and Arestate. It was the Bronze Age in much of the world, and Assyria was becoming the largest world power. In Babylon, Samsu-ditana reigned as the last king of First Babylonian Dynasty, whereas Egypt was much more established. Greek city-states were beginning to emerge, and a new Minoan palace is built. The Tang Shang emperors ruled in China.

1600 BC in Babylon

Meanwhile, the very last of the mammoths was being hunted to extinction; people had discovered such crafts as baking leavened bread and making beer and even how to make rubber balls. By 1600 BC in Babylon one of the oldest surviving astronomical documents had been created. It records the appearance of Venus, known as Nindaranna) in the night sky.

Also at about this time, according to Irish legend, Érimón, a Milesian from Spain, conquered Ireland and became one of its first high kings. It is after one of his wive’s, Tea, that the famous hill of Tara got its name.

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