Judges 12:6: “then they would say to him, ‘Then say, “Shibboleth”!’ And he would say, ‘Sibboleth,’ for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.”

April 26th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This Hebrew word shibboleth means a flowing stream, similar to where they had crossed the Jordan River. The tribe of Ephraim had a unique accent that made them pronounce the letter h differently than the other tribes. It seems they pronounced it sibboleth instead. Something similar to what happens in the English language when a Californian says wa-der instead of water or a Texan saying y’all. Today the term shibboleth in the English language has taken on the meaning of a sort of acid test that shows which side of a dispute a person is on.

Peter had the same sort of accent problem in Matthew 26:73: “You are one of them, your speech betrays you as a Galilean,” they said to him by the fire, after Jesus had been taken. There is an important spiritual application here for us all. How you speak betrays your heart. Listen to how someone talks about Jesus and you will learn something about their heart. Listen carefully to how someone talks about the Bible and you will again learn something about their heart.

We might ask ourselves the question “What are the shibboleths in our lives?” We all have one kind or another. They probably don’t bring such immediate, deadly results, as in the case of the Ephraimites, but the shibboleths in our lives can stumble those around us, words said that are the opposite of what should be flowing from our mouths. Jesus told us:

And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. (Mark 7:20–23)

“LORD, forgive our sins, cleanse our hearts and fill our mouths with words of life for others this day we ask.”