S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

A word occurring only once in the Bible (in Judges 12:6), shibboleth literally means "ear of corn" or "river." However, it is not the literal meaning of shibboleth that marks its significance but i...

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October 04 2018 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht Supporter Arizona Bible College graduate and Dallas Seminary graduate

This one single word seems to me like an excellent password today. May I suggest it? The poet, John Milton, wrote: 

And he said Sibboleth.—

“And how ingrateful Ephraim

Had dealt with Jephthah—who by argument

Not worse than by his shield and spear

Defended Israel from the Ammonite

Had not his prowess quelled their pride

In that sore battle where so many died,

Without reprieve, adjudged to death

For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth.”

Milton, the poet, Samson Agonistes, 282-289. (Milton lived from December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) and was an English poet).


Judges12:6 say Shibboleth The Gileadites use differences of dialect as a test of identity. The Ephraimites were unable to properly articulate the sh of shibboleth. The Ephraimites likely could not even hear the distinction between shibboleth and shibboleth.

The Hebrew word shibboleth refers either to an ear of corn or to a flowing river or stream. The Ephraimite dialect apparently did not differentiate the sound “sh” from “s.” Unique features that mark a distinction between dialects like this are called isoglosses. -FSB

The headlines of that day could have read "Fatal Phonetics, Hill-country Accent cost 42,000 Lives." 42,000 Jews dropped their h's--something like Brits do today. "If I had a hammer" becomes "If I 'ad a 'ammer." --Stephen M. Miller

My favorite light blue, thick, single-volume OT commentary is Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (JFB). It says, "The method adopted for discovering an Ephraimite was by the pronunciation of a word naturally suggested by the place where they stood. Shibboleth, means "a stream"; Sibboleth, "a burden." The Eastern tribe had, it seems, a dialectical provincialism in the sound of Shibboleth; and the Ephraimites could not bring their organs to pronounce
it. " JFB

"The tribes living on the east of Jordan, separated from their brethren on the west by the deep ravines and the rapid river, gradually came to adopt peculiar customs, and from mixing largely with the Moabites, Ishmaelites, and Ammonites to pronounce certain letters in such a manner as to distinguish them from the other tribes. Thus when the Ephraimites from the west invaded Gilead, and were defeated by the Gileadites under the leadership of Jephthah, and tried to escape by the "passages of the Jordan," the Gileadites seized the fords and would allow none to pass who could not pronounce 'shibboleth' with a strong aspirate. This the fugitives were unable to do. They said 'shibboleth,' as the word was pronounced by the tribes on the west, and thus they were detected (Judg. 12:1-6). Forty-two thousand were thus detected, and without reprieve, adjudged to death, For want of well-pronouncing shibboleth." ~bible.org

December 14 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report