January 30, 2024

When the Lord gave Jephthah success in overtaking Ammon to release his family from being oppressed by them, the tribe of Ephraim got mad. They came to fight Jephthah and threatened to burn his house down and then asked why he hadn't asked them to help; he did ask, but they refused to help. Then Ephraim called them fugitives, and that set Jephthah off, so he killed them! When the stragglers wanted to cross back over the Jordan to determine if they were from Ephraim or Gilead, he made them say Shibboleth, and if he said Sibboleth and didn't pronounce it right, they killed him.

This was a ridiculous fight, a family dispute, and a lot of Ephraimites got killed. This war was probably started because of jealousy over the bounty of spoils that Ephraim saw Jephthah bringing back from Ammon, and then it escalated because of words. I'm sure they must have been sorry for ever stirring that pot! Jephthah was a judge for only six years and then died. He probably died of heartbreak over his daughter's death. 

Families fight all the time, but it's best to talk out your differences or walk away rather than fight against each other. We have a common enemy and should only fight against him, not each other. 

And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me? Judges 12:3