Joshua 16 - L. M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

EPHRAIM'S BORDER

(vs.1-10)

The border of Ephraim did not adjoin Judah, for Benjamin and Dan came between them; but Ephraim's borders are discussed after Judah, for fruitfulness (of which Ephraim speaks) is a proper result of praise, the meaning of Judah. The borders, both on the south and the north, stretched from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the Jordan being the east border and the sea the west. Again, the names of the points along the border are significant, though perhaps these should be left for personal study.

However, Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer (v.10). Gezer means "a portion as cut off." speaking spiritually of a sectarian principle that too often persists among the people of God, and which we find hard to expel. Also, they were Canaanites, meaning "traffickers," for a sectarian attitude is often closely allied with a desire for material gain, which is foreign to true Christianity.