Judges 12:1-7
New Living Translation
Ephraim Fights with Jephthah
12 Then the people of Ephraim mobilized an army and crossed over the Jordan River to Zaphon. They sent this message to Jephthah: “Why didn’t you call for us to help you fight against the Ammonites? We are going to burn down your house with you in it!”
2 Jephthah replied, “I summoned you at the beginning of the dispute, but you refused to come! You failed to help us in our struggle against Ammon. 3 So when I realized you weren’t coming, I risked my life and went to battle without you, and the Lord gave me victory over the Ammonites. So why have you now come to fight me?”
4 The people of Ephraim responded, “You men of Gilead are nothing more than fugitives from Ephraim and Manasseh.” So Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and attacked the men of Ephraim and defeated them.
5 Jephthah captured the shallow crossings of the Jordan River, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim tried to go back across, the men of Gilead would challenge him. “Are you a member of the tribe of Ephraim?” they would ask. If the man said, “No, I’m not,” 6 they would tell him to say “Shibboleth.” If he was from Ephraim, he would say “Sibboleth,” because people from Ephraim cannot pronounce the word correctly. Then they would take him and kill him at the shallow crossings of the Jordan. In all, 42,000 Ephraimites were killed at that time.
7 Jephthah judged Israel for six years. When he died, he was buried in one of the towns of Gilead.
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Judges 12:1-7
New English Translation
Civil Strife Mars the Victory
12 The Ephraimites assembled[a] and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight[b] with the Ammonites without asking[c] us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!”[d]
2 Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were in a struggle and the Ammonites were oppressing me greatly.[e] I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power.[f] 3 When I saw that you were not going to help,[g] I risked my life[h] and advanced against[i] the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up[j] to fight with me today?” 4 Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying,[k] “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.”[l] 5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River[m] opposite Ephraim.[n] Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive[o] said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked[p] him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” 6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’”[q] If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word[r] correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day 42,000 Ephraimites fell dead.
7 Jephthah led[s] Israel for six years; then he[t] died and was buried in his town in Gilead.[u]
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- Judges 12:1 tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”
- Judges 12:1 tn Heb “cross over to fight.”
- Judges 12:1 tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”
- Judges 12:1 tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”
- Judges 12:2 tc Heb “A fighting man was I was and my people, and the Ammonites greatly.” The LXX reads “I was man fighting, and my people [also]. And the sons of Ammon were humiliating me greatly.” The imperfect form of ταπεινόω (tapeinoō) in the LXX probably represents the Hebrew verb עָנָה (ʿanah) as it commonly does elsewhere. Two nearby words begin with ע (ʿayin): עַמִּי (ʿammi; “my people”) and עַמּוֹן (ʿammōn; “Ammon”). So a form of עָנָה (ʿanah) could easily have been omitted by haplography. A piel perfect would begin with ʿayin, (עִנּוּ; ʿinnu), while a piel participle (as might be suggested by the Greek imperfect) would begin with mem and ʿayin, מְעַנֶּה (meʿanneh).tn The Hebrew verb רִיב (riv) often appears in a legal setting, to contend a legal case, but does not have to. In non-legal settings it can mean to strive against, quarrel, brawl (HALOT, 1224).
- Judges 12:2 tn Heb “hand.”
- Judges 12:3 tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”
- Judges 12:3 tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”
- Judges 12:3 tn Heb “crossed over to.”
- Judges 12:3 tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Judges 12:4 tn Heb “because they said.”
- Judges 12:4 tc Heb “Refugees of Ephraim are you, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” The LXX omits the entire second half of the verse (beginning with “because”). The words כִּי אָמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם (ki ʾameru pelite ʾefrayim, “because they said, ‘Refugees of Ephraim’”) may have been accidentally copied from the next verse (cf. כִּי יֹאמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם, ki yoʾmeru pelite ʾefrayim) and the following words (“you, O Gilead…Manasseh”) then added in an attempt to make sense of the verse. See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 307-8, and C. F. Burney, Judges, 327. If the Hebrew text is retained, then the Ephraimites appear to be insulting the Gileadites by describing them as refugees who are squatting on Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s land. The present translation assumes that “Ephraim” is a genitive of location after “refugees.”
- Judges 12:5 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.
- Judges 12:5 tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.
- Judges 12:5 tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.
- Judges 12:5 tn Heb “say to.”
- Judges 12:6 sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.
- Judges 12:6 tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew mss.
- Judges 12:7 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
- Judges 12:7 tn Heb “Jephthah the Gileadite.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Judges 12:7 tc The Hebrew text has “in the cities of Gilead.” The present translation has support from some ancient Greek textual witnesses.
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