1A call went out to the men of Ephraim; they passed through Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you pass through to fight against the people of Ammon and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you.”

2Jephthah said to them, “I and my people were in a great conflict with the people of Ammon. When I called you, you did not rescue me from them.

3When I saw that you did not rescue me, When I saw that you did not rescue me, I put my life in my own hand and passed through against the people of Ammon, and Yahweh gave me victory. Why have you come to fight against me today?”

4Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and he fought against Ephraim. The men of Gilead attacked the men of Ephraim because they said, “You Gileadites are fugitives in Ephraim—in Ephraim and Manasseh.”

5The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim. When any of the survivors of Ephraim said, “Let me go over the river,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

6then they would say to him, “Say: Shibboleth,” and if he said “Sibboleth” (for he could not pronounce the word correctly), the Gileadites would seize him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

7Jephthah served as a judge over Israel for six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

8After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem served as a judge over Israel.

9He had thirty sons. He gave away thirty daughters in marriage, and he brought in thirty daughters of other men for his sons, from the outside. He judged Israel for seven years.

10Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

11After him Elon the Zebulunite served as judge over Israel. He judged Israel for ten years.

12Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

13After him, Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite served as a judge over Israel.

14He had forty sons and thirty grandsons. They rode on seventy donkeys, and he judged Israel for eight years.

15Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim in the hill country of the Amalekites.