‘And the Gileadites took the fords of Jordan against the Ephraimites.'
Having defeated Ephraim Jephthah moved swiftly and set strong guards at the fords that led back over the Jordan, to prevent the Ephraimites escaping. Jephthah was a great general, but he was not as merciful or tactful as Gideon. He was determined to destroy Ephraim's whole army, and did not consider the future. This inter-tribal fighting, though forced on Jephthah, would weaken the whole tribal confederation, and more so when he dealt with his enemy with such severity. But he had been deeply insulted and was a hard man.
‘And it was so, that when the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over”, the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?”
The writer's sympathy was clearly with Gilead. Notice how he throws back in the face of Ephraim their jibe ‘the fugitives of Ephraim' (verse 4). Now it was Ephraim who were ‘the fugitives of Ephraim', fleeing for their lives. But when they came to the fords of Jordan to escape they were met by strong guards of Gileadites who questioned all who sought to cross as to whether they were Ephraimites (literally ‘Ephrathites', another name for Ephraimites, also occurring in 1 Samuel 1:1; 1 Kings 11:26).
Judges 12:5-6 a. (Judges 12:5 a)
‘If he said, “No”, then they said to him, “Now say "Shibboleth". And he said ‘Sibboleth'. For he could not so frame his words as to pronounce it correctly. Then they laid hold of him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan.'
The Gileadites were merciless. They had a simple test for whether a man was an Ephraimite. The Ephraimites pronounced their ‘sh' like an ‘s'. So when they were asked to say ‘shibboleth', they said ‘sibboleth' and few could disguise it. And when they did that they killed them. This demonstrates how Ephraim kept themselves to themselves, so much so that over time they had developed different pronunciations and ways of speaking which they were unable to immediately adjust, and that only happens over a long time. The confederacy was not in a good state.
Shibboleth means ‘a stream in flood'. It was probably considered a good joke by the Gileadites. When the Ephraimites could not pronounce it they were ‘swept away by a flood' rather than being able to cross the ford.
‘And there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty two military units.'
The total slain by the battle and its aftermath was forty two military units. We do not know how many escaped. It may be that ‘forty two' had a significance that we do not now know. They had jeered Gilead and now died. Compare how there were ‘forty two' young louts who were killed for jeering Elisha (2 Kings 2:24). The number six sometimes indicates a falling short (of the perfection of seven), compare the number 666 (a threefold falling short). Perhaps forty two indicated a sevenfold falling short (seven times six).