the younger son of Joseph, who received the precedence over the elder by the blessing of Jacob. At the exodus from Egypt, the tribe of Ephraim, of which he was the founder, numbered 40,500, but in their wanderings the number was diminished by 8000. Their possessions in the very centre of Palestine included most of what was afterwards called Samaria. They were long jealous of the regal honours of Judah; but after the dismemberment of the tribes, their rivalry was merged in that subsisting between the two kingdoms.

a city in the wilderness of Judea, to which Jesus withdrew from the persecution which followed the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. It is placed by Eusebius eight Roman miles N. of Jerusalem. This would seem to make it the same with Ephraim mentioned in 2 Chron. xiii. 19 as one of the towns taken from Jeroboam by Abijah. It was also the name of a mountain or group of mountains in central Palestine, in the territory of the tribe of that name on or towards the borders of the land of Benjamin. The forest of Ephraim in which Absalom lost his life was in the country E. of Jordan, not far from Mahanaim.