then said they to him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand.
Jephthah served as a judge in Israel probably just over the transjordanian tribes. He did so for only six years after his victory over the Ammonites and his appointment by the elders of Gilead, and he apparently failed to achieve any rest for the land.