Joshua 16

The land assigned by lot to the descendants of Joseph began at the Jordan River near Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east. From there it ran through the desert that climbs up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel.

1And the lot of the children of Joseph fell from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout mount Bethel,

Note"The lot" was a physical procedure, not a figure of speech: marked stones or sticks were shaken or drawn to decide which tribe got which stretch of land. The idea was that the outcome was taken out of human hands. The boundary descriptions in this chapter are drawn as lines running from landmark to landmark (river, spring, ridge, town) the ordinary way of recording a property line before maps.

2It went on from Bethel to Luz, and continued to the border of the Archites at Ataroth.

2And goeth out from Bethel to Luz, and passeth along unto the borders of Archi to Ataroth,

NoteThe Hebrew here can be read two ways, and translators split over it. Read one way, the border runs from Bethel on to a separate place called Luz; read another, the phrase is an aside meaning "Bethel, that is, Luz", Luz being the town's older name (Genesis 28:19). The Archites were a clan or people group living in the area; "the border of the Archites" means the edge of the land they occupied, not a fortified line.

3Then it went down west to the border of the Japhletites, as far as the border of Lower Beth-horon, and on to Gezer. The border ended at the Mediterranean Sea.

3And goeth down westward to the coast of Japhleti, unto the coast of Bethhoron the nether, and to Gezer; and the goings out thereof are at the sea.

NoteThe Japhletites, like the Archites, were a local clan whose territory served as a landmark. Beth-horon was a pair of towns on the same ridge road, an Upper and a Lower, guarding the main climb from the coastal plain into the hill country; the King James "the nether" simply means the lower of the two.

4So Manasseh and Ephraim, the descendants of Joseph, received the land that was theirs to keep and pass on to their children.

4So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.

Note"Inheritance" here does not mean property left by someone who died. It is the standing term for the share of land permanently assigned to a tribe or family, held in trust and passed down rather than bought and sold. Joseph, one of Jacob's twelve sons, was not himself counted as a tribe; his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh each became a tribe, so "the descendants of Joseph" covers two allotments, described here and in the next chapter.

5This was the territory of the descendants of Ephraim, clan by clan. The border of their land started on the east side at Ataroth-addar and ran to Upper Beth-horon.

5And 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;

NoteA clan was the unit between the tribe and the single household, an extended kinship group descended from a common ancestor. Land was parcelled out clan by clan, so a tribe's territory was in practice a mosaic of clan holdings.

6The border then ran west, with Michmethath on its north side. From there it turned east toward Taanath-shiloh and passed by it on the east to Janoah.

6And the border went out toward the sea to Michmethah on the north side; and the border went about eastward unto Taanathshiloh, and passed by it on the east to Janohah;

7From Janoah it went down to Ataroth and Naarah, then reached Jericho and came out at the Jordan River.

7And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.

8From Tappuah the border ran west to the Brook of Kanah and ended at the Mediterranean Sea. This was the land of the tribe of Ephraim, given to them clan by clan.

8The border went out from Tappuah westward unto the river Kanah; and the goings out thereof were at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim by their families.

NoteThe "Brook" of Kanah was a wadi: a watercourse that runs during the rainy season and lies dry the rest of the year. Dry or not, its bed was a permanent, visible line in the landscape and so made a convenient boundary.

9Certain towns were also set apart for the descendants of Ephraim inside the land belonging to Manasseh. This included all those towns and the villages around them.

9And the separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.

NoteBoundaries drawn on the ground rarely came out tidy. Some towns belonging to Ephraim sat inside the block of land assigned to Manasseh, and the text records this rather than smoothing it over. "Villages" translates a word meaning the small unwalled settlements that clustered around a walled town and depended on it.

10But they did not force out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites still live among the people of Ephraim to this day, and they are made to work as forced laborers.

10And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute.

NoteThe Canaanites were the peoples already settled in the land before Israel arrived; Gezer was a major fortified city on the route from the coast into the hills. "Forced labor" translates a term for conscripted work gangs, a subject population made to supply unpaid labor for building and public works, distinct from being individually owned as slaves. "To this day" is the narrator speaking to his own readers, noting that the arrangement was still in place when the account was written down.