2 Samuel 18:6

in the wood of Ephraim "The forest of Ephraim" might naturally be expected to mean the great forest covering the high lands of central Palestine in which the tribe of Ephraim settled (Joshua 17:15-18). But all the circumstances are in favour of supposing the battle to have been fought on the eastern side of the Jordan. (a) Absalom marched into Gilead and encamped there (ch. 2 Samuel 17:26); David was at Mahanaim; and there is not the slightest hint that either army crossed the Jordan. (b) It is implied beforehand that the battle would be in the neighbourhood of Mahanaim (ch. 2 Samuel 18:3). (c) The return of the army to Mahanaim on the same day(ch. 2 Samuel 19:2-5), would scarcely have been possible, had the battle been fought on the west of the Jordan. These considerations make it all but certain that "the wood of Ephraim" was some part of the great forests of Gilead. The origin of the name can only be conjectured. It may possibly have been derived from the connexion of Ephraim with the trans-Jordanic Manasseh, or from some incident such as the slaughter of the Ephraimites by Jephthah (Judges 12:6).