Judges 12:1-6
The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, ‘Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you!’ Jephthah said to them, ‘My people and I were engaged in conflict with the Ammonites who oppressed us severely. But when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. When I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hand, and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day, to fight against me?’ Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, ‘You are fugitives from Ephraim, you Gileadites—in the heart of Ephraim and Manasseh.’ Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, ‘Let me go over’, the men of Gilead would say to him, ‘Are you an Ephraimite?’ When he said, ‘No’, they said to him, ‘Then say Shibboleth’, and he said, ‘Sibboleth’, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.
Reflection
The story of Jephthah ends in another conflict, without mention of the land having rest. The Ephraimites are angry that Jephthah didn’t invite them to join his fight against the Ammonites; he accuses them of failing to assist when asked to help. Out of nowhere a difference of opinion about who said or did what has escalated out of proportion and sub-tribes become separate factions.
Nowadays ‘the king’s English’ or ‘received pronunciation’ has less significance for job-seekers, or would-be media broadcasters, than previously; but the way a person speaks still says a great deal about them. In a light-hearted sense, how someone says ‘bath’ might lead to comments about ‘northerners’, or being from the ‘home counties’; but someone with a speech impediment can still be subject to cruel taunts in some quarters.
No matter how open and accepting we are of different dialects, accents, ways of speaking, speech remains an indicator about a person’s origins, and the environmental influences they’ve absorbed through life.
This was equally true among tribal groups in the ancient past. The difference between Shibboleth and Sibboleth depends on the opening letter (in Hebrew shin or samek) but it means ‘a flowing stream’ in both variants. We are familiar with variant spellings in American English (e.g. -ize instead of -ise) where the sound is the same; but we also know that many non-native English speakers struggle to pronounce ‘th’ and confuse ‘v’ and ‘w’ sounds. Evidently the Ephraimites pronounced some words in a distinctive way to those from Gilead; and the linguistic test of those wanting to cross over the ford, led to their mass slaughter!
The whole story of Jephthah is intended to show us what can happen when society loses sight of God; when civil structures break down; when leaders become self-serving; when the richness of human diversity becomes something to be feared and eradicated. Sadly, even today, this kind of story might be reported at a national or local level – will we ever learn?
Prayer
Holy God,
we know that your love is all-inclusive,
reaching out to invite humanity
into fellowship with you and with one another.
Yet our world is too eager to focus
on differences between people;
and too ready to create divisions in society
leading to fear and hatred.
We acknowledge that political leaders
often stoke these negative feelings.
Forgive us all for our complicity in the brokenness of society.
Inspire us as Church to witness
to a loving, all-embracing, way of living
that offers real hope to the world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.