Judges 12:1–6

Jephthah and His Successors

¹Then the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they crossed ¹to Zaphon and ^asaid to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you.”

²Jephthah said to them, “I and my people were at great strife with the sons of Ammon; when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand.

³“When I saw that you would not deliver me, I ^1atook my life in my hands and crossed over against the sons of Ammon, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?”

⁴Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought Ephraim; and the men of Gilead ¹defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, O Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.”

⁵The Gileadites ^acaptured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

⁶then they would say to him, “Say now, ‘Shibboleth.’ ” But he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not ¹pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim.