Editing Shibboleth (section)

===Biblical account===
The modern use derives from an account in the [[Hebrew Bible]], in which pronunciation of this word was used to distinguish [[Tribe of Ephraim|Ephraimites]], whose dialect used a different first consonant. The difference concerns the Hebrew letter ''[[shin (letter)|shin]]'', which is now pronounced as {{IPA|[ʃ]}} (as in ''[[voiceless postalveolar fricative|sh]]oe'').<ref name="HessBlock2016">{{cite book |last1=Hess |first1=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1gzCwAAQBAJ&q=shin |title=Joshua, Judges, and Ruth |last2=Block |first2=Daniel I. |last3=Manor |first3=Dale W. |date=12 January 2016 |publisher=[[Zondervan Academic]] |isbn=978-0-310-52759-6 |editor-last=Walton |editor-first=John H. |series=Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary |page=352}}</ref> In the [[Book of Judges]] chapter 12, after the inhabitants of [[Gilead]] under the command of [[Jephthah]] inflicted a military defeat upon the invading [[tribe of Ephraim]] (around 1370–1070 BC), the surviving Ephraimites tried to cross the [[Jordan River|river Jordan]] back into their home territory, but the Gileadites secured the river's fords to stop them. To identify and kill these Ephraimites, the Gileadites told each suspected survivor to say the word ''shibboleth''. The Ephraimite dialect resulted in a pronunciation that, to Gileadites, sounded like ''sibboleth''.<ref name="HessBlock2016" /> In Judges 12:5–6 in the [[King James Version|King James Bible]], the anecdote appears thus (with the word already in its current English spelling):
{{blockquote|{{lang|en-emodeng|And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;

Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.}}|source=Judges 12:5–6<ref>{{Bibleverse|Judges|12:5-6|HE}}</ref>}}