The Ephraimites Who Left Egypt Too Early
Men of Shevet Ephraim leave Egypt thirty years before the redemption and fall to the Philistines; their bones are later revived in Yechezkel’s vision.
Targum Yonasan ben Uziel, on the first pasuk of Beshalach, explains that men from the tribe of Ephraim attempted to leave Egypt 30 years before the redemption. Since they transgressed Hashem’s decree, Hashem allowed the Philistines to have dominion over them. Their bodies remained in the land of the Philistines.
The Torah tells us that Hashem did not want to take the Bnei Yisrael through the land of the Philistines when they were leaving Mitzrayim. The Targum explains that Hashem knew that the Bnei Yisrael, upon encountering the bodies of their brethren who had perished 30 years earlier, would lose heart and desire to return to Mitzrayim. Therefore, Hashem led Bnei Yisrael through a different route. The Targum ends off his commentary by noting that it was these individuals from the tribe of Ephraim who merited a short-lived resurrection in the time of Yechezkel HaNavi.