Judges 12, Shibboleth

Jehpthah, warrior, ruffian, son of a prostitute, has called on YHWH and then defeated the Ammonites.

Judges 12: 1-4, Ephraim, again

The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, "Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We're going to burn down your house over your head."

Jephthah answered, "I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn't save me out of their hands. When I saw that you wouldn't help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?"

Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, "You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh."

Just as with Gideon, we hear of the men of Ephraim whining that they did not get to fight.  This time the result is warfare between Ephraim and the men of Gilead, soldiers of Jephthah. This is the first account of warfare between the tribes of Israel.

Judges 12: 5-6, Shibboleth

The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?"

If he replied, "No,"they said, "All right, say `Shibboleth.'" If he said, "Sibboleth," because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. 

Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

Each language or dialect has some sounds it does not make or cannot hear.  Adults in that linguistic environment have difficulties learning these new sounds. (Examples abound; the rolled 'r' of Mexican speech, the umlauts of German speech, Chinese difficulties with r/l...)  In this case, the Ephraimites cannot pronounce 'sh', and hear only 's'.  That dialectical difficulty is used against them.  This passage, with its strange word, has brought the word "shibboleth" into the English language; "shibboleth" now represents a custom or tradition that separates people.

The account of Ephraimites killed is "42 eleph". This could be 42 "clans" or "military units".  The number 42,000 exceeds the total population of Ephraim according to the census in Numbers 26: 37. (See an earlier Sunday essay on "The Problem of Large Numbers in the Old Testament.")

Judges 12: 7-15, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon

Jephthah led Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in a town in Gilead.

After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage to those outside his clan, and for his sons he brought in thirty young women as wives from outside his clan. Ibzan led Israel seven years. Then Ibzan died, and was buried in Bethlehem.

After him, Elon the Zebulunite led Israel ten years. Then Elon died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

After him, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, led Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He led Israel eight years. Then Abdon son of Hillel died, and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

There are more judges, powerful men with many sons and daughters. The narrator hurries through these three judges in order to get to the most colorful -- and most broken -- judge of them all.