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.
Unfortunately Jephthah treated his own brethren, the Ephraimites, as he had dealt with Israel’s enemy, the Ammonites. He unleashed his zeal and took vengeance far out of proportion to what might have been legitimate.