E'PHRAIM, the younger son of Joseph by his wife Asenath, and the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. It is possible that he may have received his name, which signifies " double fruitfulness," from having been born during the seven years of plenty. Ills grandfather, Jacob, shortly before his death, prophesied the greatness of his pos terity when giving him his blessing: "His seed shall become a multitude of nations" (Gen. xlviii. 19). After the Israelites had left Egypt, the tribe of Ephraim numbered 40,500 (Numbers i. 32, 33); but from causes not specified, and not discoverable, it had sunk, 40 years later, on the eve of the conquest of Canaan, to 32,500 (Numbers xxvi. 37). Yet it was under the leadership of an Ephraimite, Joshua, the son of Nun, that the Canaanites were subjugated, and the land possessed. This seems to have given the tribe a much higher influence than might have been expected from its numerical strength. We find Judah and Ephraim classed together as taking their inheritance first (Josh. xv, xvi., etc.). The precise boundaries of Ephraim, as of the other tribes, it is impossible to determine. It occupied the center of Palestine, was bounded on the
s. by Dan and Benjamin, and stretched from the .Jordan on the e. to the Mediterranean on the west. From scattered notices of the Ephraimites in the earlier annals of the Hebrews, we infer that they were, on the whole, jealous of their brethren. This feel ing of dissatisfaction at length broke out into rebellion in the reign of Rehoboam, and the new kingdom of Israel, ruled over by Jeroboam, was for the most part merely the kingdom of Ephraim, for the land which lay to the n. of it could hardly be said to be actually in the possession of the tribes whose names it bore, the original inhabitants keeping stubborn hold of their cities and strongholds. See the article JEWS.
EPI, or GIROUETTE (Fr.), a species of ornamental ironwork with which the cones of pavilions or pointed roofs are sometimes surmounted in the renaissance style of archi tecture. One of the finest examples is that which surmounts the Tourelle aux Pastorals at the hotel de Bourgtheroulde in Rouen.