but the hill country shall be yours. Although it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and it’s farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”
Joshua said to them,“ If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest, and clear land for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim; since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”
Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said,“ You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the middle of Ephraim, and in the middle of Manasseh.”The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever a fugitive of Ephraim 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,“ Now say‘ Shibboleth;’” and he said“ Sibboleth”; for he couldn’t manage to pronounce it correctly, then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time, forty- two thousand of Ephraim fell.