How to Pronounce Shibboleth
SHIB-uh-lith
Shibboleth is pronounced SHIB-uh-lith (ˈʃɪbəlɪθ): three syllables, stress on the first.
What does Shibboleth mean?
Shibboleth means “Sibboleth, ear of corn; stream or flood”.
Hitchcock’s Bible Names (1869), public domain.
What is Shibboleth?
River, or an ear of corn. The tribes living on the east of Jordan, separated from their brethren on the west by the deep ravines and the rapid river, gradually came to adopt peculiar customs, and from mixing largely with the Moabites, Ishmaelites, and Ammonites to pronounce certain letters in such a manner as to distinguish them from the other tribes. Thus when the Ephraimites from the west invaded Gilead, and were defeated by the Gileadites under the leadership of Jephthah, and tried to escape by the “passages of the Jordan,” the Gileadites seized the fords and would allow none to pass who could not pronounce “shibboleth” with a strong aspirate. This the fugitives were unable to do.
Adapted from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), public domain.
Found in Scripture
Other names from Judges
In other languages
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