Did Jephthah Kill a Man with a Speech Impediment?

Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, and Gilead seized the fords of the Jordan against Ephraim. When any of the fleeing Ephraimites said, “Let me pass,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he answered, “No!” they would ask him to say “Shibboleth.” If he said “Sibboleth,” not pronouncing it exactly right, they would seize him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell at that time (Judges 12:4-6).

This was not a matter of a speech impediment but rather regional dialect. Even though both groups spoke the same language, there was enough difference in regional pronunciations that certain words would reveal a person’s origins.