Joshua 17:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 1. There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh, &c.— As if it were said, "A lot for Manasseh after Ephraim, though Manasseh was the first-born." Or, rather, these words form a parenthesis, as our version gives it, the design of which is, to show the reader that Jacob had testified some preference for Ephraim. Genesis 48:19-20. However, he did not pretend to take from Manasseh the least privilege to which he might have a right. Both being sons of Joseph, they drew but one lot, and their estates and cities were, in some degree, mixed together; but, after having described the portion of the lot which fell to Ephraim, it was proper, in like manner, to describe the portion of his brother Manasseh. Machir, the only son of Manasseh, Numbers 26:28-29 must have been either dead, or one hundred and eighty years of age, at the time of the division of the country by Moses. This is proved from his son Gilead's being himself born while Joseph was living. Machir, therefore, must have had the honour of passing for a man of war, by some warlike exploit performed during his stay in Egypt, and perhaps in the bloody quarrels which early subsisted between the Ephraimites and Manassites. 1 Chronicles 7:21. Others think, that the name of father is here put to signify the whole family; as if the author had said, because the children of Machir were men of war. God, on account of the valour of the Gileadites, who were as courageous as Machir from whom they descended, had settled them in a part of the country of Bashan, and in a part of that of Gilead; ch. Joshua 13:11; Joshua 13:31. The latter bore the name of Gilead so early as in the time of Jacob, Genesis 31:21. Gilead never set foot in it himself, as he was not born before the death of Joseph; but he occupied it by his posterity, who were there settled.