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New York City has a great shibboleth. Locals can instantly tell a tourist from a native by hearing them pronounce one of the prominent streets in Manhattan: HOUSTON STREET. Tourists will pronounce it like the city in Texas, “HUGHES-tun,” while the locals pronounce it “HOUSE-tun.”
“Shibboleth” is one of those five-dollar words it pays to know[1]. Google the word and you will see: there are novels entitled Shibboleth, there are articles and essays using the word in all sorts of ways, and there are special uses of the word in fields as disparate as online security, modern art, and freemasonry. I like to see the word crop up as a metaphor in a discussion having nothing to do with word pronunciation. But of course—word pronunciation is the whole point of shibboleth.
During the period of the judges, a saying arose: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” Judges 17:6.
One of the worst examples of this terrible statement of the status quo is the civil war (better, the civil battle) that broke out between the tribe of Ephraim and a group of men led by Jephthah (of the tribe of Manasseh). When the Ammonites began attacking Israelites living in Gilead, Jephthah led an army into battle and won a great victory. But the men of Ephraim were upset.
“Then the men of Ephraim … said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you” Judges 12:1.
In today’s age of draft-dodgers, I find this story ironic. The men of Ephraim were angry because there had been a dangerous, bloody battle—one in which Israel was ultimately victorious—and they were upset to have been left out.
Remember the stories of wealthy, privileged young men of the 1960s who found their way to Canada or to England to avoid going to Vietnam[2]? These Ephraimites felt differently, and attacked Jephthah for robbing them of their chance at glory. Unfortunately, the Ephraimites were serious about the attack, and after some peace talks, Jephthah and his men fought them with the same fervor with which they had defeated the Ammonites. –Remember, these are fellow Jews. These are Jephthah’s Israelite brothers. But if they wanted a war, he would bring them a war.
Jephthah and the Gileadites quickly gained the upper hand. Then before the Ephraimites could escape back into the land of Ephraim, the Gileadites took control of the low water crossings on the Jordan River.
“The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” then they would say to him, “Say now, ‘Shibboleth.’” But he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim” Judges 12:5-6.
Because of this Bible story, Shibboleth, a Hebrew word meaning an ear of grain or a flowing stream, has represented a kind of password for thousands of years. The original shibboleth involved the physical ability to pronounce the ‘sh’ sound. Other shibboleths distinguish people who may have ability, but lack the insider knowledge of how to pronounce a word, such as Houston Street in Manhattan.
A third kind of shibboleth involves non-verbal communication, such as identifying a spy whose spoken English may be perfect, but who uses the German rather than the English gesture for the number three (when he holds up a thumb and two fingers), or who crosses the written number seven in a manner practiced on the European continent, but not in England or the United States. These basics are the foundation for the rather intellectual concept of the shibboleth.
So how does this apply to me and you? Think about this story. Who goes to war over a perceived slight? And this was a civil war!
The nation of Israel lost over forty thousand fighting men because the tribe of Ephraim felt left out.
(And this is a nation that STILL has not conquered all of the Promised Land. There are plenty of battles yet to fight, if Ephraim is so bellicose.)
Why go to war against your own people? And to lose! To lose forty THOUSAND men? Over a perceived insult? (By the way, Jephthah claimed he did invite Ephraim to the fight. See Judges 12:2.)
This was a failure of leadership. Israel had no king. The nation had a judge—but the judge was Jephthah, and he should have negotiated a settlement with his brothers from the tribe of Ephraim. Scholars describe Jephthah as a straight shooter, but after brief negotiations failed to resolve the problem, he did not hesitate to fight.
“In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” Judges 17:6.
I can’t help but think a king would have found a way to fix this problem—because a king would not be willing to lose forty thousand soldiers. Again—this is a civil war! Every death costs Israel, no matter which side the man is on. And forty thousand men died over an insult?
As the Apostle Paul put it centuries later: “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?” I Corinthians 6:7.
Dear God, teach us to be peacemakers. Teach us to resolve conflicts. Teach us to forgive. Teach us to love our brothers, our churches, our people, our families, our friends, our co-workers. I know “sheep bites are worse than wolf bites.” Forgive us, Lord, for fighting with the sheep in our flock. May our churches be places of peace, love, kindness, humility, and forgiveness.
AΩ.
[1] Funnily enough, Mark Twain coined the phrase “five-dollar word” when he wisely suggested avoiding such words: “Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” That is excellent writing advice. But some five-dollar words have no fifty-cent alternatives. Shibboleth is such a word.
[2] The list of suspected draft dodgers includes four future presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and many celebrities: Muhammad Ali, Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, Chevy Chase, Mitt Romney, and Bernie Sanders. (The facts of each case are complex and I do not presume to judge them here, hence the word ‘suspected.’)
Household Words: 