Judges 12:1-6 ▼

1 The Ephraimites assembled and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, |Why did you go and fight with the Ammonites without asking us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!|

2 Jephthah said to them, |My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites. I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power.

3 When I saw that you were not going to help, I risked my life and advanced against the Ammonites, and the LORD handed them over to me. Why have you come up to fight with me today?|

4 Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying, |You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim's and Manasseh's territory.|

5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River opposite Ephraim. Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive said, |Let me cross over,| the men of Gilead asked him, |Are you an Ephraimite?| If he said, |No,|

6 then they said to him, |Say 'Shibboleth!'| If he said, |Sibboleth| (and could not pronounce the word correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.