fortifying of these towns. Sherah was probably an heiress, who had received these places as her inheritance, and caused them to be enlarged by her family. In 1Ch 7:25-27 the ancestors of Joshua the son of Nun, who brought Israel into the land of Canaan, are enumerated. As the word בּנו is wanting after רשׁף, we must hold Rephah and Resheph to be brothers, but we are not informed from which of the four Ephraimite stocks enumerated in Num 26:35. they were descended. “Telah his son,” Bertheau holds to be a son of Rephah. The name Tahan occurs in Num 26:35 as that of the founder of one of the families of Ephraim; but he can hardly be identical with our Tahan, who was probably a son of that Tahan from whom an Ephraimite family descended. If this conjecture be correct, Joshua would be of the family of Tahan.
Verses 26-27
Elishama the son of Ammihud was a contemporary of Moses, Num 1:10, and prince of the tribe of Ephraim, Num 7:48; Num 10:22. נון (Non) is so pronounced only in this place; in the Pentateuch and in the book of Joshua it is נוּן (Nun).
Verses 28-29
In 1Ch 7:28 and 1Ch 7:29 the possessions and dwelling-places of the tribe of Ephraim (and as we learn from the superscription, 1Ch 7:29), also those of West Jordan Manasseh, are given, but in a very general way; only the chief places on the four sides being mentioned. Bethel, now Beitin, on the frontier of the tribal domains of Benjamin and Ephraim (Jos 16:2; Jos 18:13), and assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (Jos 18:22), is here mentioned as an Ephraimite city on the southern frontier of the Ephraimite territory, as it belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes; whence we gather that this register was prepared after that kingdom had come into existence. As to its position, see on Jos 7:2. Her daughters are the smaller villages which belonged to Bethel. Naaran, without doubt the same place which is called in Jos 16:7 נערתה (with ה loc.), is the eastern frontier city lying to the north-east of Jericho; see on Jos 16:7. “And westward Gezer,” according to Jos 16:3, lying between Beth-horon and the sea (see on Jos 10:33), is the frontier city on the south-west; and Shechem and Avvah (עוּה), with their daughters, are places which mark the boundary on the north-west. As to שׁכם, Shechem, the present Nabulus, see on Jos 17:7. Instead of עוּה, most of the editions of the Bible agree with lxx and Vulg. and Chald. in having עזּה, but not the Philistine Gaza: it is only an error of the transcribers
