Throughout all mount Ephraim. — He had not ventured to summon these haughty clansmen before his victory was assured.
Take before them the waters. — i.e., “intercept their flight unto Beth-barah and Jordan.” The “waters” are probably the marshes formed by streams which flow from the watershed of the hills of Ephraim into the Jordan.
Beth-barah. — “House of the waste,” not, as Jerome says, “of the well.” It can hardly be the Bethabara (house of the passage) of John 1:28, which seems to be too far south.