John Gill Commentary Joshua 16

And the lot of the children of Joseph fell
Or, "went out" {a}; of the pot or urn, this being the next lot that was drawn to that of Judah, the government being Judah's, and the birthright Joseph's, (1 Chronicles 5:2); and by his children are here meant the tribe of Ephraim, and the tribe of Manasseh: or the line and border according to the lot went forth^F1

from Jordan by Jericho unto the water of Jericho on the east ;
by which it appears, that this was the southern border of the lot; for the tribe of Benjamin, in which Jericho was, lay between Judah and Ephraim, and the border began at Jordan, where it flowed near Jericho, and proceeded to a water which belonged to that city, and is generally thought to be the waters Elisha healed, (2 Kings 2:19–22);

to the wilderness that goes up throughout Mount Bethel ;
this was the wilderness of Bethaven, (Joshua 18:12); Jarchi interprets it of the border that went up through Mount Bethel; which is true, and so might the wilderness also, for which the Targum is express; mention is made of a mountain on the east of Bethel, (Genesis 12:8).

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (auyw) "et egressa est", Pagninus, Montanus; "exivit", Piscator.

And goes out from Bethel to Luz
For though these two places in time became one, yet they were originally distinct. Bethel, at which Jacob stopped, and who gave it its name, was a field adjacent to the city of Luz, (Genesis 38:11Genesis 38:19) ; and therefore may properly be distinguished, as they are here:

and passes along unto the borders Archi to Ataroth ;
or to Archiataroth; these two words are the name of one and the same place, and should be joined as they are in the Greek version and others; it is the same with Atarothaddar, (Joshua 16:5) (18:13) . Ataroth was its proper name, but it had these additional epithets to distinguish it from another Ataroth; see (Joshua 16:7) ; Jerom ^F2 mentions Atharoth by Ramma, in the tribe of Joseph, and of another in the tribe of Ephraim, now a village at the north of Sebaste, or Samaria, four miles from it, called Atharus; the former is here meant.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: De loc. Heb. fol. 88. G.

And goes down westward to the coast of Japhleti

This place is now unknown, though no doubt well known to the sons of Joseph, when this lot fell to them, and its border was described:

unto the coast of Bethhoron the nether :

so called to distinguish it from Bethhoron the upper, (Joshua 16:5); this was about twelve miles from Jerusalem; (See Gill on Joshua 10:10); and to Gezer: which was about a day's journey from Bethhoron, as appears from the passages in the Apocrypha:``39 So Nicanor went out of Jerusalem, and pitched his tents in Bethhoron, where an host out of Syria met him. 40 But Judas pitched in Adasa with three thousand men, and there he prayed, saying, ... 45 Then they pursued after them a day's journey, from Adasa unto Gazera, sounding an alarm after them with their trumpets.'' (1 Maccabees 7)

Jerom ^F3 says in his time it was a village called Gazara, four miles from Nicopolis, or Emmaus. It is the same with Gadara, as it is sometimes called by Josephus, who says ^F4 , the tribe of Ephraim took in the land from the river Jordan to Gadara; this was a royal city; see (Joshua 10:33);

and the outgoings thereof are at the sea :

the Mediterranean sea.

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: De loc. Heb. fol. 92. A.
• F4: Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22.

So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their
inheritance .
] As it fell to them by the lot; by Manasseh is meant the half tribe of Manasseh, one half of that tribe having been settled by Moses on the other side Jordan; and next follows an account of the borders of the inheritance of Ephraim in particular, as that of the half tribe of Manasseh is given in (Joshua 17:1–18) .

And the border of the children of Ephraim, according to their families, was [thus]

Or what follows is the description of it:

even the border of their inheritance on the east side was Atarothaddar, to Bethhoron the upper ;

the first was on the south of the inheritance, and the latter on the north, as Masius has placed them: who has given us a type of this description, by which it appears that this lot is here described in its breadth from south to north.