Judges 12

Chapter 12

¹And the men of Ephraim were called together, and passed over northwards, and said to Jephthah, Why didst thou pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thy house upon thee with fire. ²And Jephthah said to them, I was at great strife, I and my people, with the children of Ammon; and I called you, but ye saved me not out of their hand. ³And when I saw that ye would not save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Jehovah gave them into my hand. Why then are ye come up to me this day, to fight against me? ⁴And Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye, Gilead, ye are fugitives of Ephraim in the midst of Ephraim, and in the midst of Manasseh. ⁵And Gilead took the fords of the Jordan before Ephraim; and it came to pass that when the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Art thou an Ephraimite? and he said, No. ⁶Then they said to him, Say now Shibboleth! and he said, Sibboleth, and did not manage to pronounce it rightly. Then they took him, and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. And there fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand. ⁷And Jephthah judged Israel six years. And Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

⁸And after him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. ⁹And he had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent out of the house, and thirty daughters he took in from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. ¹⁰And Ibzan died, and was buried at Bethlehem. ¹¹And after him Elon, the Zebulonite, judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. ¹²And Elon the Zebulonite died, and was buried in Ajalon in the land of Zebulun. ¹³And after him Abdon the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, judged Israel. ¹⁴And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy ass colts. And he judged Israel eight years. ¹⁵And Abdon the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill-country of the Amalekites.