Bible Strands
Judges 12:6
they told him, “Please say Shibboleth.” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. So at that time 42,000 Ephraimites were killed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Gileadite soldiers at the Jordan fords interrogate fleeing Ephraimite men to verify their identity. They demand a specific phonetic test before allowing passage.
The words — שִבֹּ֜לֶת (shibboleth) literally means “ear of grain” or “stream,” while the mispronounced סִבֹּ֗לֶת (sibboleth) exposes the speaker’s regional dialect. The verb יָכִין (yakin) translates literally as “he gave attention,” noting the fugitive’s failure to attend to the correct pronunciation.
The thread — The passage intersects with Ecclesiastes 10:12 on the lethal weight of speech, Matthew 12:25 on divided kingdoms falling, and Psalms 69:2 on being overwhelmed by floodwaters.
Why it lands — The text states that a single phonetic shift triggers immediate execution, establishing language as a lethal boundary marker. It requires readers to recognize how linguistic precision enforces political division and determines survival.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 10:12 The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool consume him.
- Matthew 12:25 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
- Psalms 69:2 I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.
- Psalms 69:15 Do not let the floods engulf me or the depths swallow me up; let not the Pit close its mouth over me.
- Proverbs 17:14 To start a quarrel is to release a flood; so abandon the dispute before it breaks out.
- Proverbs 18:19 An offended brother is harder to win than a fortified city, and disputes are like the bars of a castle.
- Isaiah 27:12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered one by one.
- Matthew 26:73 After a little while, those standing nearby came up to Peter. “Surely you are one of them,” they said, “for your accent gives you away.”
- Mark 14:70 But he denied it again. After a little while, those standing nearby said once more to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you too are a Galilean.”
- Galatians 5:15 But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.