1 Chronicles 7:20-29--Descendants of Ephraim

1 Chronicles 7:20-29
English Standard Version
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Descendants of Ephraim
20 The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, and Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, 21 Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead, whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to raid their livestock. 22 And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. 23 And Ephraim went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son. And he called his name Beriah, because disaster had befallen his house. 24 His daughter was Sheerah, who built both Lower and Upper Beth-horon, and Uzzen-sheerah. 25 Rephah was his son, Resheph his son, Telah his son, Tahan his son, 26 Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, 27 Nun his son, Joshua his son. 28 Their possessions and settlements were Bethel and its towns, and to the east Naaran, and to the west Gezer and its towns, Shechem and its towns, and Ayyah and its towns; 29 also in possession of the Manassites, Beth-shean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, Dor and its towns. In these lived the sons of Joseph the son of Israel.

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Ephraim had a gift for leadership, but they often led their brothers the wrong way.  They started off complaining about the allotment of land they had been given wanting more, saying that they were too numerous. (They wanted special treatment since Joshua was from their tribe, but they got none).  Then they were instrumental in making a place for the idolatrous Golden Calf worship of the northern ten tribes and the rebellion against the sons of David when the northern ten tribes of Israel broke away to make their own country with their own king.  They are another one of the tribes that was taken into exile by Assyria.

The LORD had given the descendants of Ephraim much success in their battles over their enemies, but they did not destroy them all as the LORD commanded, but instead kept them as slaves, and these slaves later created issues being a counterculture within their culture.

The sons of Ephraim and the deed of their land is recorded here by the priests.  However, no census data is available here for them.  We'll have to go back to the census data provided in 2 Samuel when David took the second census for that information.  Remember that Ephraim was the first-born son of Joseph, and that means that a special blessing passed from Joseph to him.  God blessed Ephraim for the sake of Joseph but would not look past their sin and leading the people to sin.  They could have been great leaders among the people if they would have accepted their role and position among the tribes--they were not destined to be kings because the King of Kings would not come from their tribe.  They were however strong and capable of fighting battles, but they preferred to use their strength to subjugate others and treat them like they had been treated in Egypt (which the LORD specifically forbade).  If only they would have listened to the LORD and His commands, many others would have followed their example.  Instead they led others on the path of partial obedience, which is disobedience, and the end of that was their exile and a great many of the people dying in war and in foreign lands.