I. EPHRAIM, the Patriarch Joseph’s second son, by Aseneth, Potiphar’s daughter. He was born in Egypt, about the year of the world 2293, or 2294. Ephraim was carried by his father Joseph, together with his brother Manasseh, and presented to Jacob on his death-bed. Jacob making the two brothers to come near him, laid his right hand on Ephraim the youngest, and his left on Manasseh the eldest. Joseph desirous to change his hands, and put Jacob’s right hand on Manasseh, said, Not so, my father, for this is the eldest. Jacob answered him, I knew it, my son; Manasseh shall be multiplied, 1 Chr. vii. 20, 21.and become the father of many people: but Ephraim shall be greater, and his posterity more numerous; and the time shall come, when Ephraim and Manasseh shall be a sort of form of blessing, and it shall be said, May God heap his favours on you, as he did on Ephraim and Manasseh.
Numb. ii. 18, 19.While the Israelites abode in Egypt, the sons of Ephraim having made an inroad upon Palestine, the inhabitants of Gath killed them, and Ephraim their father mourned many days for them, and his brethren came to comfort him. Afterwards he had a son whose name was Beriah, and a daughter, called Sherah, who built upper and lower Bethoron, and Uzzen-Sherah. He had other sons also, Rephah, Resheph, and Tela. The posterity of Ephraim multiplied to that degree in Egypt, that when they left that country, they amounted to the number of forty thousand and five hundred men above twenty years of age, and capable of bearing arms. Elishama, the son הפתח Ps. lxxviii. 9.of Ammihud, was their Captain.
After they were entred into the land of promise, Joshua, who was of this Tribe, gave them their portion between the Mediterranean Westward, and the river Jordan Eastward. The Half-tribe of Manasseh was placed to the North, and those of Dan and Benjamin to the South. The Ark of the Covenant, and the Tabernacle remained a long time in this Tribe at Shiloh; and after the separation of the ten Tribes, the seat of the kingdom of Israel was always in the Tribe of Ephraim. Ephraim is frequently set down to signify the whole Kingdom of the ten Tribes. Instead of Ephraim, the word Ephræm is sometimes used; Filii Ephræm intendentes & mittentes arcum. And the Canton belonging to this Tribe is called Ephratah, in Psalm cxxxii. 6. Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah. We have observed, that the Ark was at Shiloh in the division of Ephraim. Lastly, Ephratæus sometimes signifies a man of Jud. xii. 5.Ephraim; Numquid Ephratæus es? — Dic ergo Schibboleth. Elkanah, Samuel’s father, is surnamed Ephratæus, 1 Sam. i. 2.
But the word Ephrata is used also for Bethlehem, and Ephratæus for a man of Bethlehem, as will be taken notice of hereafter. The Tribe of Ephraim was led into captivity beyond the Euphrates, together with the other Tribes of Israel, by Salmaneser King of Assyria, in the year of the world 3283, before Jesus Christ 717, before the Vulgar Æra 721. Some affirm, that they still subsist, and are very numerous in The Author’s Dissertat. prefixed to the books of Chron, pag. xx, xxi, &c.Tartary, China, or the Indies; but in a Dissertation written particularly on this question, we have enquired into this matter, and endeavoured to demonstrate, that the ten Tribes returned to Palestine, some time about the reign of Alexander the Great. As to the Cuthæans or Samaritans, who were sent into Samaria after the transplanting of the ten Tribes, our opinion of them may be seen in the Articles CUTHITES or CUTHÆANS, or SAMARITANS.