After winning the battle, the Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River where you could cross into Ephraim. It tells us in verses 5-6 that the Gileadites then conducted a linguistic test on any man trying to cross back over to Ephraim. They would simply ask them to say the word “shibboleth”. Because of the Ephraim dialect, even though the man would deny being an Ephraimite… he would mispronounce the word. 42,000 Ephraimites were killed there because their tongues betrayed them. The tongue may be one of the smallest body parts we have…but it can undoubtedly get us into the most trouble.
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