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Then Jephthah, furious at the taunt of Ephraim that the men of Gilead were mere outcasts[a] and the scum of the earth, mobilized his army and attacked the army of Ephraim. He captured the fords of the Jordan behind the army of Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim tried to cross the river, the Gilead guards challenged him.

“Are you a member of the tribe of Ephraim?” they asked. If the man replied that he was not, then they demanded, “Say ‘Shibboleth.’” But if he couldn’t pronounce the H and said, “Sibboleth” instead of “Shibboleth,” he was dragged away and killed. So forty-two thousand people of Ephraim died there at that time.

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 12:4 mere outcasts, literally, “fugitives of Ephraim.”

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