Ephraim (Joseph)

Though the younger of Joseph's sons, Ephraim received the greater blessing when Jacob crossed his hands to lay his right hand upon the boy's head, foretelling that his descendants would become a multitude of nations and a fullness of peoples. This promise of fruitfulness found expression in the tribe's inheritance of the central hill country, where Shiloh became the resting place of the tabernacle and Shechem the site of covenant renewal. Over time Ephraim grew to dominate the northern tribes, its name often standing for the whole house of Israel, though its later pride drew the Lord's rebuke for turning aside from his ways.