Ephraim Joseph and his Egyptian wife had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 1:41-52). When the aged Jacob gave his parting blessings to his family, he gave the firstborn’s blessing to Joseph instead of to Reuben (because of Reuben’s immorality with Jacob’s concubine; Genesis 35:22; Genesis 49:3-4; 1 Chronicles 1:5-2). This meant that Joseph would father two tribes in Israel instead of one. Jacob therefore raised Joseph’s two sons to the same level as Jacob’s other sons, so that Joseph’s two sons would each have his own tribe (Genesis 1:48-6). The tribe of the younger son Ephraim was destined to become stronger than that of the older son Manasseh (Genesis 1:48-20).
Good territory
The tribe of Ephraim received as its inheritance possibly the best part of Canaan (cf. Genesis 1:49-26). This was the central highland region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (Joshua 1:16-10). (For information about its more important towns See Bethel; Jericho; Joppa; Shechem; Shiloh.)
Yet the Ephraimites were not satisfied. Since the fertile hills of the territory given to them were largely covered with forest, they complained that there was not enough land suitable for them to build villages to house all their people. Joshua told them to clear the forests and drive out the remaining Canaanite people and they would find that they had plenty of land (Joshua 1:17-18; See also Judges 17:1; 2 Samuel 18:6).
Political ambition
Ephraim considered itself to be the leading tribe in Israel, and showed a spirit of jealousy when denied the status it believed it deserved. It complained to Gideon when he did not invite it to the battle against the Midianites (Judges 8:1), and to Jephthah when he did not ask it to join the battle against the Ammonites (Judges 12:1).
In particular, Ephraim was jealous of Judah, whom it saw as its competitor for leadership in Israel. When David (who was from the tribe of Judah) succeeded Saul as king of Israel, Ephraim supported Saul’s son as a rival king, but after two years was forced to admit defeat (2 Samuel 2:4,2 Samuel 2:8-10; 2 Samuel 5:1-3). Some years later Absalom rebelled against David, and once again Ephraim appears to have supported the anti-David forces (2 Samuel 1:18-8).
When, after the death of Solomon, the northern tribes broke away from Judah, an Ephraimite led the revolt and became the first king of the breakaway kingdom (1 Kings 1:11-28; 1 Kings 12:20). This breakaway northern kingdom continued to call itself Israel, whereas the southern kingdom (which the dynasty of David continued to rule over in Jerusalem) became known as the kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom Israel was so dominated by Ephraim that it was often called Ephraim (Isaiah 7:2,9,17; Isaiah 28:1; Hosea 4:17; Hosea 5:3; Hosea 9:3; See Israel).