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Bible study · Joshua 16:1-10

Joshua 16: Ephraim's border, and Gezer

Read Joshua 16:1-10 before you meet.

In a few lines

Joseph's one lot became two tribes' land, and Ephraim's border is drawn first; Jacob had once "set Ephraim before Manasseh" (Genesis 48:20). At the Jordan the living God "among you" would drive out the Canaanite (3:10); at Gezer the Canaanites stayed "in the territory of Ephraim" (16:10), the same Hebrew word, and the book says they didn't drive them out, not that they couldn't.

The verse to carry

“The children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.”

Joshua 16:4

To talk about

  1. 1. "They didn’t drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer" (16:10), where of Jerusalem the book says "the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out" (15:63). What difference do you hear between "didn't" and "couldn't"?

  2. 2. The Law said, "They shall not dwell in your land" (Exodus 23:33); Judges says the LORD left nations "that by them I may test Israel" (Judges 2:22). How do those verses shape how you read Gezer, where the Canaanites stayed "to this day" (16:10)?

  3. 3. Manasseh was "the firstborn of Joseph" (17:1), yet Ephraim's border is drawn first (16:5), and Jacob had once "set Ephraim before Manasseh" (Genesis 48:20). When have you seen the one you least expected put first?

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