EPHRAIM, GATE OF (C^nsx 1V-0 ; Sept. irvXr] 'Efpcdij.), one of the gates of the city of Jerusalem (2 Kings xiv, 13; 2 Chron. xxv, 23; Neh. viii, 1(! ; xii, 39), doubtless, according to the Oriental practice, on the side looking towards the locality from which it de- rived its name, and therefore on the north, probablj'^ at or near the position of the present " Damascus gate." See Jerusalem.
EPHRAIM, AVOOD OF (Q-'ti^X '^"^ ; Sept. tV«^- juoc 'Eippatfi), a forest (the word yaar implying dense growth), in which the fatal battle was fought between the armies of David and of Absalom (2 Sam. xviii, C), and the entanglement in which added greatly to the slaughter of the latter (vcr. 8). It W(ndd be very tempting to believe that the forest derived its name from the ]ilace near which Absalom's shpo|i-farm was situated (2 Sam. xiii, 23), and which would have been a natural spot for his head-quarters before the battle, especially associated as it was with the murder of Am- non. INIoreover, there appears to have been another woodland of Ephraim in the mountains belonging to that tribe in this neighborhood (Josh, xvii, 15-18).
EPHRABI
254
EPHRATAII
But the statements of xvii, 24, 2G, and also the expres- sion of xviii,3, "That thou succor us out of the city,"
3. e. Mahanaim, allow no escape from the conclusion that the locality was on the east side of Jordan, though it is impossible to account satisfactorily for the pres- ence of the name of Ephraim on that side of the river. The suL'',t;cstion is due to Grotius that the name was derived from tlic slaughter of Ephraim at the fords of Jordan by the Gileadites under Jephthah (Judg. xii, 1,
4, 5) : l>u"t tliat occurrence took place at the ver}' brink cf the river itself, while the city of Mahanaim and the wooded country must have lain several miles away from the stream, and on the higher ground above the Jordan valley. Is it not at least equally probable that the forest derived its name from this very battle ? The great tribe of Ephraim, though not specially men- tioned in the transactions of Absalom's revolt, cannot fail to have taken the most conspicuous part in the af- fair, and the reverse was a more serious one than had overtaken the tribe for a verj^ long time, and possibly combined with other circumstances to retard material- ly their rising into an independent kingdom. But oth- ers suppose that it was because the Ephraimites were in the habit of bringing their flocks into this quarter for pasture ; for the Jews allege that the Ephraimites received from Joshua, who was of their tribe, permis- sion to feed their flocks in the woodlands within the territories of any of the tribes of Israel ; and that, as this forest lay near their territories on the other side the Jordan, they were wont to drive their flocks over to feed there (see Jarchi, Kimchi, Abarbanel, etc., on 2 Sam. xviii, 0). It is probabl}' referred to under the name Ephratah (q. v.) in Psa. cxxxii, 6, where the other member of the verse has "fields of the wood." Others, however, not unreasonably suppose this to be a different locality. See Forest.
2. In "Baal-hazor, which is 'b}'' Ephraim," was Absalom's sheep-farm, at which took place the murder of Amnon, one of the earliest precursors of the great revolt (2 Sam. xiii, 23). The Hebrew particle D", ren- dered above "by" (A.V. "beside"), always seems to imply actual proximity, and therefore we should con- clude that Ephraim was not the tribe of that name, but a town. The cities of Dan and Asher are other instances of localities be^'ond the tribes, yet bearing their names ; and the former suggests that the appel- lation n)ay in all these cases have arisen by coloniza- tion. Ewald conjectures that the place here in ques- tion is identical with Epiirain, Ephrox, and Ophraii of the O. T., and also with the Ephraim -which was for a time the residence of our Lord {Gesch. iii, 219, note). But with regard to the first three names there is the difficulty that they are spelt with the guttural letter ayin, and this is very rarely exchanged for the aleph, wdiich commences the name before us. The Sept. makes the following addition to verse 34 : "And the watchman went and told the king, and said, I have seen men on the road of the Oronen (rljc lopMj'F]!', Alex. Tujv 6p(onniv) by the side of the mountain." Ewald considers this to be a genuine addition, and to refer to Beth-^oj'on, N.W. of Jerusalem, off the Nab- lus road, but the indication is surely too slight for such an inference. Any force it may have is against the identity of tiiis Ephraim with that in John xi, 54, which was probablj' in the direction N.E. of Jerusa- lem. Nevertheless, the best solution of the question appears to be to identify' this place with the one fol- Jowing. See Baal-iiazor.
3. A city ('E0po(/t \iyon'tvi}v iro\iv') "in the dis- trict near the wilderness," to which our Lord retired ..iih his disciples when threritencd with violence by the priests in consequence of having raised Lazarus /nun the dead (John xi, 54). By f iie " wilderness" (j.pr]iio(S) is pi-obably meant the wild uncultivated hill- country N.E. of Jerusalem, lying bctwee'n the central towns and the Jordan valley (see Lightfoot, Hor. Ileb.