Almost all affirm [this] as certain — as we saw in the first question: Lyranus, Abulensis, the Author of the Hebrew Questions, and others. But to me it seems far otherwise: namely, that the Gethites themselves made the incursion upon the Ephraimites, and slew them. For, first, it is agreed that Geth was in Palestine (1 Kings [Samuel] 6). Again, from what was said in question 1, it is clear that this was done at the time in which the Israelites were still stuck in Egypt. Now thus: those who wished to snatch away the possessions of others — the text says that [these] “went down” to them. But in Scripture, those who go from Egypt into Palestine or Judaea are always said to “go up,” and, on the contrary, those [who go] from here [to Egypt], to “go down.” Therefore it is not the Ephraimites who went down to the Gethites, but the Gethites [who came down] to the Ephraimites. Read, if you please: Genesis 44, verse 24, “When we had gone up to thy servant, our father”; Exodus 12, verse 38, “An innumerable mixed multitude went up with them”; Numbers 13[:17], “Go up by the south side,” and afterward, “and when they had gone up, they explored [it], and went up to the south”; the same [book], chapter 32, verse 11, “these men, who went up out of Egypt”; Deuteronomy 1, verse 22, “let him report by what way we ought to go up,” [and] verse 26, “you would not go up,” and “we went up by the way of Basan”; Genesis 26[:2], “Go not down into Egypt”; [and Genesis 46], “the people went down into Egypt.” But now what, I pray, [was] the cause for these sons of Ephraim, that [they should invade] the Gethites…
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…[But now what, I pray, was the cause for these sons of Ephraim, that they should invade and harass the Gethites?] I find four causes in Abulensis (on 1 Paralipomenon 7, question 8), but of which none can please. The first: that, first of all, they were planning to carry out the bones of Joseph — concerning which they had received a command at the end of Genesis. But since they were then slain in the land of Geth, the [bones] they had carried out with them would have remained there, against Exodus chapter 13, verse 18. And whether this command had been given to the Ephraimites alone, or rather to all the Israelites: Moses rightly understood and expounded [it] of all, in the place already cited. The second: that, on account of Manasseh being preferred before Ephraim himself (Genesis 48), they bore [proud] spirits — the Ephraimites [being] rather lofty, and therefore wishing to occupy the promised Chanaan at once. This could indeed derive some color from their later pride (Judges 8 & 12), and perhaps from Psalm 77 [78], verse 9 — but in vain. For how would the Ephraimites alone attempt so great a thing? How would a very few, while their father was still living, attack not merely one city (as Simeon and Levi did, Genesis 34), but a whole nation and region? Were they so proud as to leave the rest of the Israelites behind in Egypt? The third: that [they did it] to wipe away the fault and infamy of the murmuring which the wickedness of the spies had stirred up (Numbers 14, verse 40). But there you would find that the Ephraimites and all the Israelites were not of the same will (verses 34, 44) — to say nothing of [the fact] that this incursion of which we treat happened long before Egypt was left, as [was] indicated above (question 1). The fourth, finally, of Abulensis himself: that the same Ephraimites, while they dwelt in the land of Gessen [Goshen] (Genesis 46), wished to enlarge their borders, and so made an onset upon neighboring Geth. But how would strangers — in a foreign kingdom, like exiles, and not very many — provoke a neighboring nation? And would not this whole thing be brigandage? I should indeed prefer to think that they contrived this incursion with the Egyptian Pharaoh knowing and permitting [it] — perhaps even commanding [it], on account of some quarrel of his with the neighboring nation. But there is no need of conjectures and figments. The end and cause for which those [men] of whom we here speak invaded others, the text clearly declares: “that they might invade their possessions” — whether those were placed in gold and silver, or in clothing and cattle (although the Seventy seem to understand [it] more of cattle, who translated κτήνη). But to plunder the wealth of neighbors, and to drive off cattle, unless there be a just cause — which here appears none — is the plainest brigandage, robbery, and rustling. But shall we impute so great a crime to the sons of Ephraim, and even to Ephraim himself, still surviving and an old man? This is surely rather worthy of the Gethites — whom we can understand [to be] bold, warlike, and quite troublesome, even from Goliath alone. For so also the Chaldaeans (Job 1, verse 17) invaded the herds of Job’s camels; and, agreeably to the customs of the Gethites — among whom he was then hiding — David rushed upon various [peoples] (1 Kings [1 Samuel] 27, verse 8 and following). But you will say: why are the “men of Geth” here called “natives,” unless [it was] to signify that they, being acquainted with the places into which the Ephraimites were rushing from elsewhere, easily overpowered them? [No,] the cause is another: namely, that the Gethites — not [as] mercenaries or stipendiaries, but [as] natives — did this very thing, so that it might be understood [to be] consonant with their institutions; and indeed against
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men who [are], in a foreign kingdom, tenants and newcomers. So, therefore, while the Ephraimites defend their own property from the robbers and rustlers who had come down from Geth into neighboring Egypt to them, they were wickedly slain. And from this it is understood why (Exodus 13, verse 17), when Pharaoh had sent forth the people, the Lord did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, which is near. For the Israelites dreaded the Gethites, and indeed all the other Philistines — inasmuch as, from those breaking in upon them into Egypt, they had received no light damages and slaughter.