A civil war between Ephraim and Gilead leaves forty-two thousand dead after a single mispronounced word at the fords of the Jordan.
Full sung version coming soon.
Lyrics
The men of Ephraim were gathered together And crossed over northward and said to Jephthah Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon
And didn’t call us to go with you We will burn your house over you with fire Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife
With the children of Ammon And when I called you, you didn’t deliver me out of their hand When I saw that you didn’t deliver me, I put my life in my hand
And crossed over against the children of Ammon And the LORD delivered them into my hand Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me
Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead And fought with Ephraim And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim because they said You are fugitives of Ephraim
The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against Ephraim And it was so that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him
Are you an Ephraimite If he said, No, then they said to him Say now Shibboleth
If he said Sibboleth, for he could not manage to pronounce it They seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan And there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty-two thousand
Jephthah judged Israel six years Then Jephthah the Gileadite died And was buried in one of the cities of Gilead
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Judges 12 sung by Psalm Selah. The whole Bible, one chapter at a time.