Joshua 16
Big idea: Ten verses for the tribe of Joseph's southern half, and the last one is the same admission Judah's chapter ended on: they did not drive out the Canaanites of Gezer, so they live among Ephraim to this day and became forced labourers.
The phrase 'forced labour' is what Judges 1 will show becoming the standard arrangement — and what the book presents as a compromise rather than a solution.
16:1–10 — They became forced laborers
The description runs west from the Jordan at Jericho up through Bethel and out to the sea, with Ephraim's own portion marked inside the wider Joseph allotment. The detail worth noting is v. 9: Ephraim has cities set apart inside Manasseh's territory, which is the kind of arrangement that produces the friction of chapter 17.
1 The lot came out for the children of Joseph from the Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, even the wilderness, going up from Jericho through the hill country to Bethel. 2 It went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth; 3 and it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Beth Horon the lower, and on to Gezer; and ended at the sea. 4 The children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance. 5 This was the border of the children of Ephraim according to their families. The border of their inheritance eastward was Ataroth Addar, to Beth Horon the upper. 6 The border went out westward at Michmethath on the north. The border turned about eastward to Taanath Shiloh, and passed along it on the east of Janoah. 7 It went down from Janoah to Ataroth, to Naarah, reached to Jericho, and went out at the Jordan. 8 From Tappuah the border went along westward to the brook of Kanah; and ended at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families; 9 together with the cities which were set apart for the children of Ephraim in the middle of the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages. 10 They didn’t drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell in the territory of Ephraim to this day, and have become servants to do forced labor.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).