A tribe that could not take a city is one thing. A tribe that simply did not is another, and that is where Joshua 16 lands. This Joshua 16 summary and study guide walks the borders God handed the sons of Joseph, then stops where Ephraim stopped.
Table of Contents
Setting the Stage
Years before Israel had a country, an old man in Egypt reached for his grandsons. Jacob was dying, and he pulled Joseph’s two boys close and said they were his own, counted as sons rather than grandsons (Genesis 48:5). Then he laid his right hand on the younger boy’s head. Joseph tried to move it across to the older one, and Jacob refused, saying the younger would be the greater of the two (Genesis 48:17-19).
Reuben, the actual firstborn, had forfeited his double portion, and it passed to Joseph’s family (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). So when Canaan is being divided at Gilgal and Judah’s border has just been drawn, the next lot belongs to the sons of Joseph. Joshua 16 is where those two boys become two territories.
Comprehensive Joshua 16 Summary
The lot falls to the house of Joseph, and the line starts at the Jordan River beside Jericho. From there the southern boundary climbs west out of the valley, through the wilderness and up into the hill country to Bethel, on past Luz, along the edge of a people called the Archites at Ataroth, then down westward past the Japhletites to lower Beth-horon, on to Gezer, and out at the Mediterranean.
That one line hands Joseph’s family the middle of the country, river to coast. Verse 4 closes the transaction: Manasseh and Ephraim, the two sons of Joseph, take their inheritance.
Ephraim’s own portion is then measured inside it. The eastern edge runs from Ataroth-addar up to upper Beth-horon. The northern edge goes west to Michmethah, turns back east to Taanath-shiloh and past Janohah, then drops to Ataroth and Naarath, touches Jericho and comes out at the Jordan.
From Tappuah the line runs west along the brook Kanah to the sea. Ephraim also receives towns that sit inside Manasseh’s territory rather than its own, with all their villages.
Then the chapter turns. Ephraim did not drive the Canaanites out of Gezer. The Canaanites stayed where they were, and Israel put them to forced labour instead.
Nine verses of careful measurement have said what God gave. The tenth says what Ephraim let stand inside it.
One Word Summary
- Inheritance: the word the chapter uses four times in ten verses.
- Border: nine verses trace one, which is how a promise gets an address.
- Compromise: the last verse trades obedience for labour.
In One Sentence
Ephraim and Manasseh receive the second lot in Canaan and Ephraim’s borders are drawn from the Jordan to the sea, but Ephraim leaves the Canaanites of Gezer in place and puts them to forced labour instead of driving them out as God had commanded.
Theme of Joshua 16
Joshua 16 is about a promise fully given and only partly taken. The land arrives by lot rather than by bargaining, and it arrives measured, with an eastern edge, a western edge, named landmarks along the way, and towns set aside for Ephraim inside Manasseh’s ground.
Running alongside that is a second idea the chapter will not let go of: what God hands over still has to be occupied. Ephraim’s borders were complete on the day they were read out. Ephraim’s hold on them was not, and the gap between the two is where the last verse sits.
Joshua 16 Outline
- Joshua 16:1-3: The southern boundary of the house of Joseph is traced from the Jordan at Jericho to the Mediterranean by way of Bethel, Luz, Ataroth, lower Beth-horon and Gezer.
- Joshua 16:4: Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph, take their inheritance.
- Joshua 16:5-8: Ephraim’s own border is measured out inside that lot, from Ataroth-addar in the east to the brook Kanah and the sea in the west.
- Joshua 16:9: Cities are set apart for Ephraim inside Manasseh’s inheritance.
- Joshua 16:10: Ephraim does not drive out the Canaanites of Gezer, who stay in the land and are put to forced labour.
Observations from Joshua 16
Judah Could Not, Ephraim Did Not (Joshua 16:10 with Joshua 15:63)
The chapter before this one ends on the Jebusites of Jerusalem: “the children of Judah could not drive them out” (Joshua 15:63). Judah was unable to dislodge them.
Joshua 16:10 changes the verb: “And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer.” Ephraim left the Canaanites of Gezer where they were.
One verse reports a wall a tribe failed to get past. The other reports a job a tribe left undone. The chapter that has just finished measuring God’s gift ends by naming what Ephraim allowed to stand inside it.
Gezer Was Not a New Enemy (Joshua 16:10 with Joshua 10:33 and 12:12)
Gezer’s king Horam marched out to help Lachish, and Joshua struck him and his people “until he had left him none remaining” (Joshua 10:33). Joshua killed Horam and destroyed the force he brought with him. The king of Gezer then appears in the list of thirty-one defeated kings (Joshua 12:12).
The city Ephraim left alone had already lost its king and its army. Gezer’s strength does not look like the reason Ephraim let it stand.
Joshua says as much to this same family one chapter later. When the house of Joseph complains that the valley Canaanites have iron chariots, he answers, “thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong” (Joshua 17:18). Joshua told them the strength of the enemy was not the deciding factor.
The Chapter Stops Moving at the Last Verse (Joshua 16:1-10)
Every verse from 1 to 9 is a line in motion. The border goes up, goes out, passes along, goes down, goes about, comes to, comes out. The word “border” appears six times in ten verses.
Verse 10 carries none of that. The survey runs the whole width of the country and then stands still at one city. That is where Ephraim stopped as well.
Ephraim Received a Line, Not a List (Joshua 16:5-9 with Joshua 15:20-62)
Judah’s chapter names well over a hundred towns, counted in groups with totals. Ephraim gets boundary points and one summary phrase: “all the cities with their villages” (Joshua 16:9). Joshua 21:21-22 later names four of Ephraim’s towns because the Levites were given them, and that is the only place any of them appear.
Matthew Henry suggested a reason. Joshua was an Ephraimite himself, and may have settled his own tribe’s towns without sending the list to the council that recorded the towns of the other tribes. Scripture states no reason, so hold that as a suggestion rather than a finding.
Ephraim Shrank in the Wilderness and Was Still Named First (Joshua 16:4-5 with Numbers 26)
Jacob had put the younger boy first. The head-count did not. Ephraim left Egypt with 40,500 fighting men and came out of the wilderness with 32,500, while Manasseh rose from 32,200 to 52,700 (Numbers 1:33, 1:35; 26:34, 26:37). At the moment this land is divided, Manasseh is the larger tribe by twenty thousand men.
Verse 4 still names them in birth order, Manasseh then Ephraim. The chapter then sets out Ephraim’s portion first, which many read as Joshua following the order Jacob had set rather than the order the head-count suggested.
Difficult Verses Explained
Why Did Ephraim Not Drive the Canaanites Out of Gezer?
The chapter does not say why. It reports what happened: the Canaanites stayed, and Israel put them to work. Any reason beyond that is supplied by readers, not by the verse.
Judges describes the same arrangement across several tribes and adds a detail: “when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out” (Judges 1:28). Israel had the strength, and used it for labour rather than for obedience. The command had been plain: in the cities God gave them as an inheritance, Israel was to destroy the nations completely, so that those nations would never teach Israel the practices they used in worshipping their gods (Deuteronomy 20:16-18).
Commentators fill the gap with motives. David Guzik reads it as peace at any cost and a desire for wealth. Matthew Henry lists carelessness, cowardice or covetousness. Both are reasonable, and both are inference; the verse stops at the fact.
Does Joshua 16:2 Contradict Genesis 28:19 About Bethel and Luz?
No. Genesis 28:19 says Jacob named the site Bethel, “but the name of that city was called Luz at the first,” and Joshua 16:2 reads as though the border travels from one to the other.
Many interpreters take the two names as covering slightly different things at slightly different times: Luz was the Canaanite town, and Bethel was first the place of Jacob’s altar and pillar just outside it. As the sanctuary’s reputation grew, its name spread over the town as well. Joshua 18:13 and Judges 1:23 treat the two as one place, which fits that reading. Scripture does not settle the question.
DAILY BREAKTHROUGH BREAD
A slice of Scripture every morning
One short, Christ-centered devotional in your inbox every day. Free, and you can unsubscribe any time.
Common Misunderstandings
- That Ephraim was unable to take Gezer. Several summaries of this chapter say the Ephraimites were unable to drive the Canaanites out. Joshua 16:10 says they did not. The verse that says “could not” belongs to Judah in the chapter before.
- That forced labour settled the problem. A generation later the same sentence has to be written again: “Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer” (Judges 1:29). Israel took the labour of Gezer and left the city itself in Canaanite hands.
- That Joshua 16 is about tribal unity. Some lesson lists read the shared lot in verse 4 and the shared towns in verse 9 as a picture of Ephraim and Manasseh working together. The chapter makes no such statement, and in the very next chapter the house of Joseph comes to Joshua complaining that one lot is not enough for them (Joshua 17:14).
- That a chapter of boundaries has nothing in it. The boundaries record a promise being handed over in measurable form, and the last verse plainly reports what Israel did with what it was handed.
Christ Connection
Later in the same book the writer says of God’s promises to Israel, “There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass” (Joshua 21:45).
God kept every word He had given them. Joshua 16:10 stands in that same book, and Gezer is the place where something stalled. God’s side was complete. Israel’s side stopped short.
Hebrews takes up exactly that gap: “For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:8-9). The name in that verse is Joshua, in its Greek form. The writer’s argument is that Joshua’s conquest, real as it was, left the final rest still ahead, or God would have said nothing later about another day.
So this chapter points forward. The believer’s inheritance is described the same way: the Holy Spirit is “the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Ephesians 1:14), a down payment on ground that is guaranteed and still being entered.
The New Testament also says plainly what to do about an enemy living inside territory God has given. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6:12). A believer’s body belongs to Christ, and sin is not to be obeyed when it makes its demands there.
Paul then gives the ground for that command: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). Grace is what breaks sin’s claim to rule a believer.
Ephraim put the Canaanites in its territory to work. Paul tells believers to put the sin in their own lives to death (Colossians 3:5). The rest Joshua left unfinished is the rest Christ gives.
When, Where, and Why
- When: During the division of Canaan, after a campaign commonly reckoned at about seven years, while Israel was still camped at Gilgal (Joshua 14:6) and before the tabernacle was set up at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1). Traditional dating places the conquest in the fifteenth century BC, though the chronology is debated.
- Where: The chapter’s line runs from the Jordan River across to the Mediterranean through the central hill country. Four places carry its shape: Jericho at the eastern end where the line begins, Bethel on the high ridge above it, upper and lower Beth-horon guarding the pass down from the hills to the coastal plain, and Gezer at the western end, a major Canaanite city that Bible atlases place at the junction of the coastal highway with the road inland.
- Why: The writer records the deed so Israel would know exactly what God had handed them, landmark by landmark. He records the one failure as well, and it is where a reader coming to the book of Judges can watch the trouble in that book begin.
Key Verses
“And 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,”
Joshua 16:1
The portion for Joseph’s family began at the Jordan next to Jericho, ran past the water of Jericho on the east, and climbed through the wilderness into the hills at Bethel. The promise gets a starting point on the ground, and that point is Jericho, where the conquest itself began.
“So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.”
Joshua 16:4
Joseph’s two sons received the land that belonged to them. One short sentence closes a story that opened in Egypt with a dying man’s hands on two boys’ heads. What Jacob said over them has become soil with borders.
Key Lessons from Joshua 16
- God assigned this inheritance by lot rather than by conquest or bargaining, and Ephraim’s portion was set out first even though Manasseh was the larger tribe (Joshua 16:4-5; Numbers 26:34, 26:37).
- A promise fully given still has to be taken, since Joshua 21:45 and Joshua 16:10 stand in the same book and both are true.
- Ephraim had the strength to make Gezer serve it and spent that strength on gain instead of obedience (Joshua 16:10).
- A compromise that pays can be harder to give up than one that costs, because Ephraim gained labourers by leaving the Canaanites where they were (Joshua 16:10).
- An enemy left in place can stay a threat for a long time, as Ephraim found when the Canaanites of Gezer were still there a generation later (Joshua 16:10; Judges 1:29).
To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Joshua 16.
Bible Study Questions
- Trace the boundary in Joshua 16:1-3 on a map or on paper. Where does it start, where does it end, and how much of the country does it cross?
- Read the last verse of Joshua 15 beside the last verse of Joshua 16. What is different about how each tribe’s failure is described, and why would the writer bother to word them differently?
- Joshua 10:33 and 12:12 both mention Gezer. What do those verses add to your reading of Joshua 16:10?
- Verse 4 says the sons of Joseph “took their inheritance.” What had God promised this family, and how long had they waited for that sentence to be written?
- Joshua 16:9 gives Ephraim towns inside Manasseh’s territory. What would that arrangement have required of both tribes?
- Ephraim gained workers by leaving Gezer alone. Where does a benefit make it harder to obey God rather than easier?
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Joseph receive two tribes in Israel?
Because Jacob adopted Joseph’s two sons as his own before he died: “Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine” (Genesis 48:5). That gave Joseph a double share of the land through his two boys. First Chronicles 5:1-2 explains the background: Reuben lost the birthright, it passed to Joseph, and the ruler came from Judah instead.
What does the name Ephraim mean?
Ephraim means fruitful. Joseph named his second son that way in Egypt, “For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction” (Genesis 41:52). Centuries later the prophets used Ephraim as a name for the whole northern kingdom of Israel (Hosea 4:17; 5:3).
Where was the tribe of Ephraim located?
In the hill country of central Canaan, the region later known as Samaria. Benjamin and Dan lay to the south of Ephraim and Manasseh to the north, and the tribe held ground reaching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean coast. Shiloh, where the tabernacle was set up and stood for generations, sat inside it (Joshua 18:1; Judges 21:19).
Why did Ephraim have cities inside Manasseh’s territory?
Joshua 16:9 records the arrangement and gives no reason for it. Some interpreters suggest Ephraim’s own borders proved too tight for the tribe in practice; others note that Manasseh likewise held towns outside its own boundaries, in Issachar and Asher (Joshua 17:11), so the pattern was not unique to Ephraim. Both readings are conjecture.
What happened to Gezer after Joshua’s day?
It stayed Canaanite for centuries. Judges 1:29 repeats the failure a generation later. Gezer was even assigned to the Levites (Joshua 21:21), a city given away on paper while Canaanites still lived in it. It was finally cleared when Pharaoh captured the city, burned it, and gave it to his daughter as a present when she married Solomon (1 Kings 9:16).
Joshua 16, The Full Text (KJV)
Read the full chapter below for reference.
1 And 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,
2 And goeth out from Bethel to Luz, and passeth along unto the borders of Archi to Ataroth,
3 And goeth down westward to the coast of Japhleti, unto the coast of Beth-horon the nether, and to Gezer: and the goings out thereof are at the sea.
4 So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.
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 Ataroth-addar, unto Beth-horon the upper;
6 And the border went out toward the sea to Michmethah on the north side; and the border went about eastward unto Taanath-shiloh, and passed by it on the east to Janohah;
7 And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.
8 The 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.
9 And the separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.
10 And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute.
