Chronicles contains a lot of special Ephraim material, much of it having to do with military expeditions and reform movements of Judean kings in the north. The significance of the tribes of Ephraim in the Israelite alliance can be seen from the names of some of the leaders of the tribe: Joshua, Samuel, Saul, and Jeroboam. Braun does not believe that Shechem was an Ephraimite town, but rather that Ephraim’s rise to special prominence began with the shift of the central sanctuary from Shechem to Shiloh. After the Syro-Ephraimitic conflict of 734–732 BC, when Israel lost her more peripheral areas, Ephraim became synonymous with Israel, and the name Ephraim is often found as a designation for the entire northern nation (Hosea 7:1; Hosea 11:8).1
The successive treatment of the two Joseph tribes is logical, fitting the biblical pattern of treating Ephraim and Manasseh as related both socially and politically (Deuteronomy 34:2). Often Ephraim is placed first when paired with Manasseh because of Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim prior to Manasseh (over the protest of Joseph), though Manasseh was the older of the brothers (Genesis 48:20). The Chronicler’s order of Manasseh followed by Ephraim is explained on the basis of the geographical location of the northern tribes, since the genealogy of western Manasseh in 1 Chronicles 7:14–19 more naturally links up with the list of Transjordan clans of Manasseh recorded earlier (1 Chronicles 5:23–26).2
This genealogical record contains four sections:
a linear genealogy from Ephraim to Shuthelah (1 Chronicles 7:20–21a) partly based on Numbers 26:35
the birth narrative of Beriah (1 Chronicles 7:21b–1 Chronicles 7:22–24)
a linear genealogy from Rephah to Joshua, the son of Nun (1 Chronicles 7:25–26)
the settlement record of Ephraim (1 Chronicles 7:27–28)3
20 The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, and Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son,