Japhleti

Japhleti is a border-marker on the southern edge of the Joseph-tribe allotment, identified in the text as the territory of "the Japhletites" through which the dividing line runs.

A Border on the Joseph Allotment

The boundary description for the children of Joseph fixes a series of named landmarks running from the Jordan westward toward the sea. The Japhletites' territory is one of those landmarks: "and it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Beth-horon the nether, even to Gezer; and the goings out of it were at the sea" (Jos 16:3). The line is set by the edge of the Japhletites' country, then by Lower Beth-horon and Gezer, and finally by the Mediterranean. The text supplies no further information about the people whose name marks this border — they are recorded only as a fixed point on the map.