In the previous chapter we saw how after God gave a great victory to Jephthah over the Ammonites, he dedicated his daughter to temple service as promised in his vow.
Notice how the Ephraimites ask why they weren’t called to help him out. This wasn’t the case, since the Ephraimites were probably called before the elders came to Jephthah, Judges 11:4-11. This seems to be a consistent problem with the people of the tribe of Ephraim, they gave a similar response to Gideon, Judges 8:1.
It’s possible that the Ephraimites wanted some of the spoil of the Ammonites or it may have been that they wanted credit for defeating the Ammonites among their own people. Whatever the reason was, they didn’t come to the original call to battle, though they were called.
As a result of this questioning from the Ephraimites, and because the Ephraimites accused them of being a band of fugitives who took up arms against the Ammonites, the Gileadites go on to punish them. Because they were not the official army who represented any of the tribes of Israel, they couldn’t claim anything or any victory in Israel’s name.
The Gileadites defeated the Ephraimites, and the Ephraimites fled to their homes. Sadly for them, they had to pass over the fords of the Jordan before they could get home. Therefore, the Gileadites set up a roadblock at the fords. It appears that the Ephraimites had been away from the tribes of Israel for so long, that their accent changed.
In the pronunciation of the word ‘shibboleth’, they couldn’t say it like the Israelites who lived on the west side of the Jordan. The word ‘shibboleth’ means either ‘ear of grain’ or ‘flowing stream’.
With this word, the people from the tribe of Ephraim were easily identified by their dialect. They had a hard time pronouncing the ‘h’ in Shibboleth and said Sibboleth instead, therefore giving themselves away. As a result, 42,000 Ephraimites were killed.
Jephthah led Israel for six years, then he died and was buried in the town of Gilead.
The only information we have about Ibzan is what is written here. He obviously had a large family and he led Israel for 7 years.
He died and was buried in Bethlehem, not to be confused with the Bethlehem in Judea, this Bethlehem was a small village in the southwest area of Zebulun.
The only information we have about Elon is what is written here.
He led Israel for 10 years, died and was buried in Aijalon which is located in the land of Zebulun.
The only information we have about Abdon is what is written here.
He had a large family and he was probably wealthy as he possessed 70 donkeys. He led Israel for 8 years, died and was buried in Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
The mention of the sons and daughters of these judges indicates the family influence a specific judge had among the people. It appears that families carried on the heritage of their fathers who were key judges.
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."