7 And the limit of Manasseh's land was from Asher to Michmethath, which is before Shechem; the line goes on to the right hand, to the people of En-tappuah.
And they gave them Shechem with its grass-lands in the hill-country of Ephraim, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Gezer with its grass-lands;
And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was the chief of that land, saw her, he took her by force and had connection with her.
And he said to him, Go now, and see if your brothers are well and how the flock is; then come back and give me word. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
The line goes out to the west at Michmethath on the north; then turning to the east to Taanath-shiloh, going past it on the east of Janoah; And from Janoah down to Ataroth, and to Naarah, and touching Jericho, it goes on to Jordan. From Tappuah the line goes on to the west to the river of Kanah; ending at the sea. This is the heritage of the children of Ephraim by their families;
Then Joshua got all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; and he sent for the responsible men of Israel and their chiefs and their judges and their overseers; and they took their place before God.
And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had taken up from Egypt, they put in the earth in Shechem, in the property which Jacob had got from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred shekels: and they became the heritage of the children of Joseph.
And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king,
Then Jeroboam made the town of Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim a strong place, and was living there; and from there he went out and did the same to Penuel.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Joshua 17
Commentary on Joshua 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
The half tribe of Manasseh comes next to be provided for; and here we have,
Jos 17:1-6
Manasseh was itself but one half of the tribe of Joseph, and yet was divided and subdivided.
Jos 17:7-13
We have here a short account of the lot of this half tribe. It reached from Jordan on the east to the great sea on the west; on the south it lay all along contiguous to Ephraim, but on the north it abutted upon Asher and Issachar. Asher lay north-west, and Issachar north-east, which seems to be the meaning of that (v. 10), that they (that is, Manasseh and Ephraim, as related to it, both together making the tribe of Joseph) met in Asher on the north and Issachar on the east, for Ephraim itself reached not those tribes. Some things are particularly observed concerning this lot:-