Micah and the Levite

17 There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

² So the Danites sent five valiant men from the whole number of their clan, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it, and they said to them, “Go, explore the land.” When they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they stayed there.^(A)

Tola and Jair

10 After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, who lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim, rose to deliver Israel.^(A)

The Tribe of Joseph Protests

¹⁴ The tribe of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, since we are a numerous people, whom all along the Lord has blessed?”^{(A) 15} And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear ground there for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.” ¹⁶ The tribe of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us, yet all the Canaanites who live in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”^{(B) 17} Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, “You are indeed a numerous people and have great power; you shall not have one lot only, ¹⁸ but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders, for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong.”

⁹ then the boundary extends from the top of the mountain to the spring of the Waters of Nephtoah, and from there to the towns of Mount Ephron; then the boundary bends around to Baalah (that is, Kiriath-jearim);^(A)