A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

Jephthah’s problems were not over with the victory over the Ammonites. When the
Ephraimites learned of Jephthah’s victory over the Ammonites, they were offended they had not
been invited to fight and share in the victory. They gathered a substantial army and marched to
Gilead to fight against Jephthah.
The Ephraimite action left Jephthah understandably upset. He reminded them there had
been an earlier appeal for help that had been ignored by the Ephraimites. In the heat of their
verbal conflict, the Ephraimites stooped to name-calling and called the Gileadites “fugitives of
Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites” (12:4). The men of Gilead retaliated
not with words but swords. Suddenly they found themselves in the midst of another battle.
One of the keys to winning a military struggle is to control the enemy’s escape route.
Jephthah and his men very quickly secured control of the fords of the Jordan River and
established a sort of border crossing. They specifically asked all those trying to cross the river if
they were Ephraimites. Of course, knowing the state of conflict that existed at the time, the wise
thing for an outnumbered Ephraimite soldier to do was say no. But there was a second test that
had to be passed before safe passage across the river would be permitted.
Jephthah’s men asked the one planning to cross the river to say the word “Shibboleth”
which means stream. Though the two armies spoke the same language, there appear to have been
minor differences in the dialect they spoke. One of these was a tendency of the Ephraimites to
pronounce the phonetic sound “sh” as “s.” As a result, as the Ephraimites uttered the special
password to cross the river, they betrayed their true identity by pronouncing it “Sibboleth.” The
plan effectively identified the Ephraimites to the soldiers, and 42,000 were killed in this conflict.
For six years, Jephthah judged Israel. It appears his ministry was limited only to the
northeastern part of the nation. He lived in the cities of Gilead as the head of the clan, and when
he died, “was buried in one of the cities of Gilead” (v. 7).
PERSPECTIVE: SPEECH BETRAYS CHARACTER
Just as the Ephraimites were betrayed by their speech, so today many people betray their
inner character or lack of character by their speech. Jesus taught His disciples mankind was
defiled from within and such things as evil speaking proceed from an evil heart. It is possible to
look like a Christian and act like a Christian, but sooner or later the speech of a pretender will
betray him. Only when there is an inner change can the tongue be controlled. Even then, it will
still reflect what is within.