One of the more intriguing stories in the Old Testament involves an inter-tribal battle in the days of the Judges. Judges 12 records how the tribe of Ephraim (west of the Jordan) picked a fight with the Gileadites (east of the Jordan). Under Jephthah's able leadership, the Gileadites routed the Ephraimites and took control of the river fords. Whenever Ephraimites tried to cross the river, the border guards asked their identity. Of course, they each denied being an Ephraimite, so the guards put them to the test: pronounce the term shibboleth (which means “ear of grain”). Unfortunately for the Ephraimites, their Hebrew dialect did not allow them to make the "sh" sound. They were only able to say sibboleth, and, thus, their accent led to their early demise.
Hebrew has several different "s" letters (sibilants). One of them has two different pronunciations. When this letter has an “s” sound, it is labeled as sin (pronounced “seen”). When it has an “sh” sound, it is labeled as shin (pronounced "sheen"). Writers of Hebrew in the days of the Bible had no alphabetic way to distinguish these two letters. It wasn't until the 6th century AD that Hebrew scholars added diacritical marks to distinguish them. Until then, native Hebrew speakers were expected to intuitively know which way to pronounce the letter based on its context. In our passage, the author of Judges has avoided this potential confusion by spelling out the Ephraimite pronunciation with a different letter altogether, the letter samech. This letter can only be pronounced as an "s," so it avoids the potential confusion of sin and shin.
How would the Ephraimites have spelled the word? Might they have written it with a sin instead of a samech? We can only surmise. But if they did, we might have before us a perfect illustration of—pardon my pun—the unpardonable sin.
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