Gideon’s Triumph and Vengeance

8 Then the Ephraimites said to him, “What have you done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against the Midianites?” And they upbraided him violently.^(A)

⁴¹ Then all the people of Israel came to the king and said to him, “Why have our kindred the people of Judah stolen you away and brought the king and his household over the Jordan and all David’s men with him?”^(A)

Intertribal Dissension

12 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!”^{(A) 2} Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were engaged in conflict with the Ammonites who oppressed us^[a] severely. But when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. ³ 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?”^{(B) 4} 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.”^{[b](C) 5} 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,”^{(D) 6} 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.

⁵ Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the spirit that God caused to dwell^[a] in us desire envy?^{(A) 6} But God gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

⁴ Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.^(A)