140 BATTLES OF THE BIBLE.

were exposed to the greater danger on that account.
The honour of the victory he did not take to himself ; it
was the Lord, he said, who had delivered the Ammo-
* nites into his hand. The haughty sons of Ephraim
were determined to have war; for they abused not
Jephthah only, but all the Gileadites, his followers.
They fought, and. Ephraim was defeated by the men of
Gilead. Those who came so eager for war were glad
then to save themselves by flight. But escape was de-
nied them. They must cross the Jordan to reach their
home, and the Gileadites, whom they had insulted, were
waiting at the fords to prevent them from passing over.
The Ephraimites had been proud of their powerful tribe,
now they were glad to deny that they belonged to it ;\but
even that cowardly trick did not save their lives. The
Gileadites did not trust their word ; they had a plan to
prove whether or not what they said was true. When
a suspected person appeared at the ford, the waiting
Gileadites put the question, “ Art thou an Ephraimite ?”
If he said he was not, they told him to say Shibboleth,
which the Ephraimites were certain to pronounce Sib-
boleth. This was a sure way of discovering them, and
all who were discovered were slain on the spot. It
seems cruel to make such a slaughter among them, yet
doubtless they deserved it, and Jephthah considered it
a necessary act of justice. Of the sons of Ephraim
there fell at this time forty-two thousand. The fate of
this proud tribe teaches us how true is the proverb which
says that “a haughty spirit goes before a fall.”