on why Israel was allowed to inhabit the land. Only when Jephthah received no reply did he decide to attack. Yet another character trait that Jephthah possessed was that he could be unpredictable. This is clearly shown when he made a foolish vow to sacrifice the first thing that came through his household doors. Jephthah was victorious over the Ammonites and their oppression was stopped. Under normal circumstances there should have been great rejoicing within the land of Israel. This was, however, not the case. When the Ephraimites heard of the victory, they became upset that they were not invited to the battle. Jephthah, however, tells them that they were invited but did not send anyone to the battle. It is clear that there was some bad communication, but regardless of this dilemma, the result is clear. When two groups of people come together, who are strong willed, and have opposing objectives, the result is generally war. Jephthah had no tolerance for excuses and summarily went to war with the Ephraimites and the Ephraimites quickly lost.When they tried to escape across the Jordan river, their escape route was quickly cut off and they were required to pass a simple but an effective test, in order to survive. The Ephraimites were required to say a simple word that would give them away. The word "shibboleth" was apparently easy for the Gileadites to say, but difficult for the Ephraimites to say. If the word "sibboleth" was pronounced then the person was an Ephraimite and was summarily executed.This is a very tragic story. The tribes of Israel should have been able to get along much better than this story suggests. When we consider all that they have been through together, we should see great joy, great unity, and a strong dedication to God. Unfortunately this is not always the case. We see these people fall away from God on many occasions, and, have many curses fall upon them. We also see that they did not always work ...
