Judges 12:1-15
12 And the men of Ephraim came out in arms and crossed to Saphon, and said to Jephthah “How is it you have gone over to fight the Bene-’Ammon and not called us to go with you? we will burn your house down over your head.”
2 * And Jephthah said to them “I had a quarrel on hand, I and my people, and the Bene-ʽAmmon had committed outrages on me; and I called you to arms and you did not help me against them;
3 * so I saw there was nobody to help me, and I took my life in my hand and passed over to the Bene-ʽAmmon, and Jehovah gave them into my hands; then why have you come up to my home this day to fight me?”
4 And Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought the Ephraimites, and the men of Gilead defeated the Ephraimites.
5 And the Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites; and when an Ephraimite fugitive said “Let me cross” and the men of Gilead said to him “Are you an Ephraimite?” and he said “No,”
6 they would say to him “Say shibboleth,” and he would say sibboleth, not getting the pronunciation right, and they would take hold of him and cut his throat, letting the blood run into the fords of the Jordan. And at that time forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell.
7 * And Jephthah judged Israel six years; and Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in his city in Gilead.
8 And after him Ibsan from Beth-lehem judged Israel;
9 he had thirty sons, and married off thirty daughters and took in thirty girls from outside as wives for his sons; and he judged Israel seven years.
10 And Ibsan died, and was buried at Beth-lehem.
11 And after him Elon the Zebulonite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years.
12 * And Elon the Zebulonite died, and was buried at Elon in the Zebulonite country.
13 And after him ʽAbdon the son of Hillel the Pireathonite judged Israel;
14 he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy young donkeys; and he judged Israel eight years.
15 And ʽAbdon the son of Hillel the Pireathonite died, and was buried at Pireathon in the Ephraimite country, in the ʽAmalekite highland.
Footnotes
^ 12:2 Codd.* cried out to you or something like that
^ 12:3 Var. I saw you were not helping me
^ 12:7 Var. in the cities of Gilead Var. in his city Mispeh-Gilead
^ 12:12 The name of the judge and of the town is spelled the same, and it is probably the same name, but the Hebrew copies have it pointed so as to read Elon for the judge and Aijalon for the town, and there is no telling which is right
