Then Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow." - Genesis 48:21-22 (ESV)
Several sources, including the Jewish commentaries on this passage, see this place as Shechem - mostly because the word translated "mountain slope" (lit. shoulder or portion) sounds like the name of the city and region known as Shechem. Now this is a place of some infamy because of the incident with Dinah (Gen 34) that ultimately led to Simeon and Levi slaughtering the people and sacking the city. Jacob must think that this land is his, even though he is ushered off in the next chapter. John 4:5-6 also shows this to be the right region:
So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.
There is another part to this puzzling piece of land. There is a possibility that Ephraim and some of his family settled in the region around Shechem before the Conquest. Consider 1 Chronicles 7:20-24:
The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, and Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead, whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to raid their livestock. And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. And Ephraim went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son. And he called his name Beriah, because disaster had befallen his house. His daughter was Sheerah, who built both Lower and Upper Beth-horon, and Uzzen-sheerah.
Gath (located just southwest of Ephraim), Lower and Upper Beth-horon (in lower Ephraim, west of Bethel), and Uzzen-sheerah (well, this location is uncertain) are places that are in the Promised Land at a time prior to the Conquest. With the funeral processions that went back to the land of Canaan, it is at least possible that some of the family stayed behind. Plus, when Joshua did enter the land, they had a huge ceremony in Shechem with no real resistance. The mustering of the opposing armies occurred in the south and in the north with no real grouping of opposing armies from the central region. It must be said that not everyone stayed there; Joshua was from the half-tribe of Ephraim (1 Chrn 7:27) and he (and many others from this tribe) came out of Egypt.
Supposing this to be true, what do you do with this all this?
One: Rejoice in the confidence we can have in God's Word. With all the names and places that are given, Scripture sets itself up to be torn apart by archeology. But time and time again, the places, people, nations, titles, flora, fauna, timelines - are all vindicated by what we see in the dirt.
Two: Take confidence in God's plan. By settling in the area, there was a type of sanctuary for the people as they entered the land. God knows what He is doing, even if it seems strange or obscure.
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