Judges 12:1 - Meaning and Application

Here, first, is the unreasonable anger of the men of Ephraim against Jephthah because he had not called them to help fight the Ammonites, so they could share in the victory and the plunder (Judges 12:1). Pride lay at the root of the quarrel. Pride often starts conflict, because proud people think every honor that goes to someone else has been taken from them.

The Ephraimites had complained in the same way to Gideon (Judges 8:1), who was from Manasseh on their side of the Jordan, just as Jephthah was from Manasseh on the other side. Ephraim and Manasseh were closer kin than any other tribes, since both were sons of Joseph. Yet they were more jealous of each other than the rest. Jacob had crossed his hands and given Ephraim the greater blessing, looking ahead to the kingdom of the ten tribes, of which Ephraim later became the head after the split from David’s house. But that tribe was not content with honor in the promise, and it grew unhappy whenever Manasseh received any honor in the meantime.

It is sad when family ties, which should lead to love and peace, become the cause of strife. An offended brother is harder to win back than a strong city, and fights among brothers are like the bars of a castle. The Ephraimites’ anger toward Jephthah was, first, without cause and unjust. They said, “Why did you not call us to go with you?” But Jephthah had no authority to do that, because the men of Gilead had made him their captain, not the men of Ephraim. If his effort had failed because he lacked their help, they could have blamed him for not asking. But when the work was finished and done well, with the Ammonites defeated and Israel delivered, no harm had been done by the fact that their hands were not in it.

Their anger was also cruel and wild. They gathered in a mob, crossed the Jordan as far as Mizpeh in Gilead, where Jephthah lived, and nothing less would satisfy them than to burn his house, with him in it. Cursed be such anger, for it is fierce. The complaints that have least reason behind them often have the most rage. Jephthah had just won against the common enemies of Israel, and they should have come to honor him and thank him for his service. Instead, we should not be surprised if we receive evil from those to whom we have done good. Jephthah was also grieving over the pain in his own family because of his daughter, and they should have come to comfort him. But cruel people often enjoy adding pain to those already suffering. In this world, one trouble often ends only so that another may begin. We must never boast as though our hardships are fully behind us.

Second, Jephthah firmly defended himself. He did not try to calm them down, as Gideon had done in a similar situation. The Ephraimites were now more violent, and Jephthah did not have as meek and gentle a spirit as Gideon did. Whether they would listen or not, Jephthah took care to defend himself.

He showed clearly that they had no reason to quarrel with him (Judges 12:2, 3). He had not gone to war out of a desire for fame, but to defend his country, which the Ammonites were oppressing. He had invited the Ephraimites to join him, even though he did not need them and had no duty to show them special respect. But they had refused: “I called you, and you did not save me from their hands.” Even if their charge had been true, it would still not have been a fair reason for anger. But it seems it was false, and the facts show that Jephthah had more reason to blame them for abandoning Israel in a time of need.

It is nothing new for those who are most guilty to be the loudest in accusing the innocent. Jephthah also reminded them how dangerous the battle had been: “I put my life in my hands.” In other words, he had exposed himself to great danger with such a small army. The honor they envied had been dearly bought, and they had no reason to begrudge it. Few of them would have dared to do what he did. He did not claim the success for himself, which would have been offensive. He gave the glory to God: “The Lord handed them over to me.” If God chose to use him for his glory, why should they be angry? To fight against him was, in effect, to fight against God, since Jephthah had only been an unworthy tool in God’s hand.

When this fair answer did not turn away their anger, Jephthah also defended himself from their violence and punished their arrogance with the sword, acting as Israel’s judge. The Ephraimites had not only quarreled with Jephthah, but when his neighbors and friends supported him, they abused them too and spoke harshly to them. I keep our translation of Judges 12:4. They mocked them as if they were saying, “You Gileadites who live east of the Jordan are only runaways from Ephraim, the refuse of the tribes of Joseph, of which Ephraim is the chief.” They treated them as outcasts, as if everyone knew they were nothing better than fugitives and wanderers, cut off from their brothers and pushed into a corner.

But the Gileadites were true Israelites like the rest. At this time they had already shown their worth, both in choosing Jephthah and in the war with Ammon. Yet they were still called fugitives in the most shameful and unfair way. It is a bad thing to attach insulting names or labels to people or places, especially to those who already have outward disadvantages. This often starts quarrels that end badly, as it did here. An abusive tongue is a dangerous thing. It calls people ugly names and speaks in contempt, and it can set the whole course of life on fire, because it is itself set on fire by hell (James 3:6). Many times it brings ruin on the one who uses it, as it did here (Psalm 64:8). If the Ephraimites had only denied themselves the small pleasure of calling the Gileadites fugitives, they might have avoided much bloodshed. Harsh words stir up anger, and no one knows how great a blaze a little spark may start.

This insult stirred the Gileadites to anger, and the injury done to them, as well as to their leader, had to be answered. They defeated Ephraim in battle (Judges 12:4). Ephraim was only a disorderly crowd without leadership, so the Gileadites struck them and put them to flight. Then they blocked their retreat and finished the defeat (Judges 12:5, 6).

The Gileadites, who may have known the Jordan crossings better than the Ephraimites did, guarded them closely. They were told to kill any Ephraimite who tried to cross the river. There was cruelty in this judgment, because the Ephraimites had already been defeated in battle, and this extra killing was severe. A full punishment had already been given, so there was no need to cut down everyone who escaped. Should violence never end? Whether Jephthah should be praised for this is hard to say. He may have seen it as necessary justice.

There was also cleverness in how the Ephraimites were identified. They spoke the same language as the other Israelites, but they had a local habit of pronouncing the Hebrew letter Shin like Samech. They had used this sound for so long that they could not change it, even to save their lives. People learn speech by imitation. So a man could be recognized by his accent, just as people in England can tell where someone is from by how he speaks. Jesus said, "You are a Galilean, and your speech gives you away" (Matthew 26:73). In this way the Ephraimites were exposed. If a man was suspected of being an Ephraimite and denied it, they told him to say "Shibboleth." But he could not pronounce it properly, or he failed to shape the word correctly, and said "Sibboleth" instead. Then they knew he was an Ephraimite and killed him at once. "Shibboleth" means a river or stream, so the test was like saying, "Ask leave to cross the stream." Those killed in this way, added to the others, made the total number of slain Ephraimites forty-two thousand (Judges 12:6). In this way another uprising from that angry tribe was stopped.

We should also notice how God’s justice matched their sin in several ways. These proud and angry Ephraimites had boasted in their tribe and were proud to call themselves Ephraimites. Yet soon they were ashamed, or afraid, to admit where they came from. They had crossed Jordan in fury to burn Jephthah’s house, but now they came back in fear and were cut off from returning home. They had mocked the Gileadites for living in a remote and less favored place, and now they suffered because of a weakness tied to their own region, since they could not say "Shibboleth" correctly. They had wrongly called the Gileadites fugitives, and now they truly became fugitives themselves. The same Hebrew word is used here for the Ephraimites who escaped, the same word they had used in insult against the Gileadites. Whoever throws shame on another unfairly should expect that shame to come back on himself.

This is also the end of Jephthah’s rule. He judged Israel for only six years, and then he died (Judges 12:7). Perhaps the death of his daughter weighed on him so heavily that he never fully recovered. It may have shortened his life, and he went to the grave in sorrow.