Ephraite

Ephraite is a term used in biblical and historical contexts to refer to a person associated with Ephraim or with Ephrath/Ephrathah. In English Bible translations, Ephraimite is the more common form for a member of the tribe of Ephraim, one of the twelve tribes of Israel that settled in the central highlands. The spelling Ephraite appears as a variant in some older or less common sources, but the meanings align with Ephraimite or Ephrathite depending on the context.

Ephraim was one of the northern tribes descended from Joseph, and its territory lay in the central hills of Canaan. The term Ephrathah (or Ephrath) refers to a place associated with Bethlehem, often described together as Bethlehem-Ephrathah in biblical poetry to denote the same area. An Ephrathite or Ephrathite is thus a person from Ephrath/Ephrathah, or, in some uses, from Bethlehem itself. The distinction matters in biblical genealogies and prophetic texts, where Ephraimite typically signals tribal affiliation, while Ephrathite signals geographic origin from that locale.

In practice, Ephraimites are referenced in discussions of the northern kingdom of Israel and its tribes, while Ephrathites are mentioned in contexts relating to Bethlehem and its surrounding region. The terms are primarily of historical and scholarly interest today, used to describe ancient ethnographic or geographic connections rather than as modern ethnonyms. Related terms include Ephraimite and Ephrathite, and the place-name Ephrath/Ephrathah (Bethlehem) is often highlighted in biblical references such as the prophecy about Bethlehem as a birthplace.