Gilead’s slaughter of its tribal brother Ephraim (12:1–6) parallels Jephthah’s slaughter of his daughter (11:39–40). Just as Jephthah through his word (11:30–31) murders a daughter within his tribe—in fact, within his own family—so Gilead through a word (shibbolet/sibbolet) murders a confederated tribe. One can see vividly the further escalated parallel between the effects of a misspoken word on Jephthah’s daughter and the Ephraimites. It is, therefore, “no surprise that the ‘justice’ wrought on Ephraim by Gilead is as violent as that which Jephthah, their new ruler, has wrought on his own
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