En-tappuah

En-tappuah ("spring of Tappuah") sits on the boundary between Manasseh and Ephraim. The UPDV preserves the place-name element inside the compound form Jashib-en-tappuah on the Manassite border, in the description of how the line ran past Shechem and bent down toward Ephraim's territory.

On the Border of Manasseh

The Manassite line is traced from Asher across to Michmethath, "which is before Shechem; and the border went along to the right hand, to Jashib-en-tappuah" (Josh 17:7). The boundary then continues southward toward the brook of Kanah and down to the sea (Josh 17:9-10). The "en-tappuah" element of the compound names the spring near the Tappuah district that anchored this stretch of the boundary line.

Land vs. Town: A Divided Holding

The next verse explains why the spot is a boundary detail rather than a single inheritance: "The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh; but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the sons of Ephraim" (Josh 17:8). The territory around Tappuah is Manassite, but the town itself sits inside Ephraim — a split inheritance with the spring near it lying on the boundary line that the writer is now tracing. From there "the border went down to the brook of Kanah, southward of the brook," and the cities south of that watercourse "belonged to Ephraim among the cities of Manasseh" (Josh 17:9). En-tappuah is one of the named markers that fixes that interlocked boundary in the land of the two Joseph tribes.