SHIBBOLETH (means both ‘ear of corn’ and ‘stream’). In the strife that arose between the Gileadites, under Jephthah, and the Ephraimites, an episode occurred which is recounted in Judges 12:1-6 . According to this, the Gileadites were holding the fords of Jordan in order to cut off the fugitive Ephraimites; but the only way of differentiating between friend and foe was to test a fugitive as to his pronunciation of such a word as ‘Shibboleth,’ in which the Ephraimite peculiarity of pronouncing sh as s would immediately be noticed. If, on uttering this word, the fugitive pronounced it ‘ Sibboleth ,’ he was known to be an Ephraimite, and was forthwith slain. In this way there fell, according to the obviously exaggerated account in J [Note: Jahwist.] , ‘forty and two thousand.’
W. O. E. Oesterley.