Thematic Bible: Fordable in some places

To keep the Ephraimites from escaping, the Gileadites captured the places where the Jordan could be crossed. When any Ephraimite who was trying to escape would ask permission to cross, the men of Gilead would ask: Are you an Ephraimite? If he said: No, they would tell him to say Shibboleth. But he would say Sibboleth, because he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they would kill him at the Jordan River crossing. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites were killed.

The men pursued them by the road to Jordan to the fords. As soon the pursuers went out they shut the gate. Verse ConceptsRivers And StreamsPursuing PeopleShutting GatesFords