Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me out of their hand.
In the battle that followed east of the Jordan, 42,000 Ephraimites (or 42 military units) suffered defeat, a high price for jealousy. The Gileadites stopped those who tried to flee back home at the fords of the Jordan. The Ephraimites’ accent did not permit them to say shibboleth (meaning "ear of corn" or "flowing stream") normally. Similarly during World War II, the Nazis identified Russian Jews by the way they pronounced "kookoorooza," the Russian word for corn. [Note: Wolf, p. 458.] In this way the Gileadite soldiers identified the fleeing Ephraimites.