a dialect difference over how to pronounce 'shibboleth' becomes the literal test for identifying and killing forty-two thousand Ephraimites at a river crossing. one syllable, spoken the wrong way, is treated as a death sentence in this civil conflict...
Linguistic<b> Say Shiboles please.</b> May I cross this river flow?<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote">Shiboles” is translated as “flow”.</i><br><br><b>They were not proficient in proper pronunciation.</b> They were speech deficient.
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