Discovery BoxJudges 12:1 
Context12:1 The Ephraimites assembled 1 and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight 2 with the Ammonites without asking 3 us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” 4
Judges 12:6
Context12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” 5 If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word 6 correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.
Judges 14:15
Context14:15 On the fourth 7 day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. 8 If you refuse, 9 we will burn up 10 you and your father’s family. 11 Did you invite us here 12 to make us poor?” 13
Judges 20:28
Context20:28 Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving the Lord 14 in those days), “Should we 15 once more march out to fight the Benjaminites our brothers, 16 or should we 17 quit?” The Lord said, “Attack, for tomorrow I will hand them 18 over to you.”
1 tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”
2 tn Heb “cross over to fight.”
3 tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”
4 tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”
5 sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.
6 tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew
7 tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.
8 tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”
9 tn Heb “lest.”
10 tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.
11 tn Heb “house.”
12 tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew
13 tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.
14 tn Heb “standing before him.”
15 tn Heb “I” (collective singular).
16 tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).
17 tn Heb “I” (collective singular).
18 tn Heb “him” (collective singular).
