Ephraim's "envy" of Judah stems from old family issues. Ephraim had the birthright. Yet despite this, Judah was the tribe through whom the line of kings would come. So Ephraim, who thought it their right to be preeminent as a result of the birthright, were required to submit to Judah's line of kings. Such was the stuff from which the "envy of Ephraim" arose. This jealousy led to the division of Israel into the two kingdoms of the north and the south after the death of Solomon. The northern kingdom, or Kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim, as it was sometimes called, was the product of Ephraim's pride and rebellion at Judah's kingship.
Ephraim is promised that in the last days he will occupy his position. The preeminence, which Ephraim thought he was deprived of anciently, will be corrected in the unfolding final events, where all other tribes will come to him for blessings. Judah will undergo his own purging. At last, both will be content with their historic settings, accomplishments and survival. At last, as brothers, these tribes will neither "envy" nor "vex" each other. An accomplishment of this magnitude is certainly millennial. Old family resentments always die hard. To get there, a final season of preparatory refining humiliation will be given to both, as we have seen in the preceding chapter. In the end, however, these brother-tribes will find harmony, gratitude and reunification as members of latter-day Israel.