When God's People Turn on Each Other

Ephraim's pride appears again. They gathered and threatened to burn Jephthah's house because he had not called them to fight Ammon. Jephthah replied that he had called and they had not saved him, so he put his life in his hand, and Yahweh delivered Ammon. He asked why they now came to fight him.

The quarrel became civil war. Ephraim's men insulted Gilead as fugitives of Ephraim. Gilead won and seized the fords of the Jordan. Each fugitive was asked to say Shibboleth; those from Ephraim said Sibboleth, because they could not pronounce it correctly. Forty-two thousand from Ephraim fell at that time. Judges shows that Israel's worst enemy was sometimes Israel itself.

After Jephthah's six years, three minor judges served. Ibzan of Bethlehem had thirty sons and thirty daughters and arranged marriages outside his clan; he judged seven years. Elon the Zebulunite judged ten years. Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite had forty sons and thirty grandsons on seventy donkey colts and judged eight years. These short notices show some years of order between the larger stories.