Ephraim (tribe)
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Ephraim (also Efraim , Hebrew אֶפְרַיִם) is the younger of the two sons of Joseph , i.e. a grandson of Jacob , the progenitor of the Israelites in the Bible ( Gen 46.20 EU ). Ephraim is born in Egypt : His mother is the Egyptian Asenat , whose father Potifera was a priest there. His brother is called Manasseh .
Ephraim - like many names - is given an interpretation in the Bible: "For God let me grow in the land of my misery", Joseph is supposed to have said when he was born ( Gen 41.52 EU ). Ephraim literally means - from Hebrew - roughly "doubly fruitful".
The name later became a synonym for a settlement area of the Hebrews in Canaan , which was populated by the members of the tribe founded by Ephraim. The Twelve Tribes of Israel appear biblically as the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob Israel. After Jacob adopted the two sons of Joseph and Asenat, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born before his arrival in Egypt, as his offspring, shortly before his death, the tribe of Joseph was divided into two parts. According to this division, Israel consists of 13 tribes, twelve of which were given their own settlement area in Canaan, while the descendants of Levi, the Levites , remained landless as the priesthood of the people of Israel.
The settlement area of Ephraim belonged to the northern kingdom of Israel , which was established around 925 BC. . BC from southern kingdom of Judah separated. Sometimes Ephraim is therefore used in the Bible as a short name for the ten northern tribes of Israel during the time of the division into a northern and southern kingdom (e.g. in the book Hosea Hos 6,4 EU ).