Unless a reader is experienced with commas, he may not realize that The descendants of Joseph and the tribes of Ephraim and West Manasseh are one and the same. To clarify, one possibility would be “The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh received this land as their possession. These tribes were the descendants of Joseph.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .