Judges 12:5 Made Simple

KJV ORIGINAL

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;

Close to the original. Clear modern English.

✦ MADE SIMPLE

The Gileadites captured the places where people could cross the Jordan River before the Ephraimites could get there. When the Ephraimites who had escaped from battle tried to cross over, the men of Gilead would ask each one, 'Are you an Ephraimite?' If the person said, 'No,'

⚡ THE BOTTOM LINE

The Gileadites set up checkpoints at river crossings to identify and catch fleeing Ephraimite soldiers by questioning them.

📚 Historical Context

This occurs during a civil war between Jephthah's forces (from Gilead, east of the Jordan River) and the tribe of Ephraim. After defeating the Ephraimites in battle, the Gileadites strategically controlled the Jordan River crossings to prevent enemy soldiers from escaping back to their territory in western Israel.

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Judges 12:4

Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead together and fought against Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim because the Ephraimites had said, 'You Gileadites are just runaway fugitives living among the Ephraimites and Manassites.'

Judges 12:6

Then they said to him, 'Say the word Shibboleth.' But he said 'Sibboleth' because he couldn't pronounce it correctly. So they captured him and killed him at the crossing places of the Jordan River. At that time, forty-two thousand men from Ephraim were killed.

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