Land in Joshua often reads like a set of directions, and Ataroth is one of the landmarks. Joshua 16 follows the edge of Ephraim’s inheritance step by step: from Bethel to Luz, along to Archi and Ataroth, down to Janohah and Naarath, until it “came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.” Another place with a nearly identical name, Atroth, turns up in a list of towns in Numbers 32:35. Nothing more is told of the place itself, so it is best read as a signpost on the map of the promised land.
4 verses
And Atroth, Shophan, and Jaazer, and Jogbehah,
And goeth out from Bethel to Luz, and passeth along unto the borders of Archi to Ataroth,
And the border of the children of Ephraim according to their families was thus: even the border of their inheritance on the east side was Atarothaddar, unto Bethhoron the upper;
And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Crowns. (1.) A city east of Jordan, not far from Gilead (Num. 32:3).
(2.) A town on the border of Ephraim and Benjamin (Josh. 16:2, 7), called also Ataroth-adar (16:5). Now ed-Da’rieh.
(3.) “Ataroth, the house of Joab” (1 Chr. 2:54), a town of Judah inhabited by the descendants of Caleb.
William Smith, 1884
(crowns).
(1.) One of the towns in the "land of Jazer and land of Gilead," (Numbers 32:3) east of the Jordan, taken and built by the tribe of Gad. (Numbers 32:34)
(2.) A place on the (south?) boundary of Ephraim and Manasseh. (Joshua 16:2,7) It is impossible to say whether Ataroth is or is not the same place as
(3.) ATAROTH-ADAR, or -ADDAR, on the west border of Benjamin, "near the “mountain” that is on the south side of the nether Beth-horon." (Joshua 16:5; 18:13) Perhaps the modern Atara, six miles northeast of Bethel.
(4.) "ATAROTH, THE HOUSE OF JOAB," a place(?) occurring in the list of the descendants of Judah. (1 Chronicles 2:54)