And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites; and it was so, that when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said: ‘Let me go over,‘ the men of Gilead said unto him: ‘Art thou an Ephraimite?’ If he said: ‘Nay’; then said they unto him: ‘Say now Shibboleth’; and he said ‘Sibboleth’; for he could not frame to pronounce it right; then they laid hold on him, and slew him at the fords of the Jordan; and there fell at that time of Ephraim forty and two thousand.
- Judges 12:5-6, JPS Tanakh 1917
Moral of story: bad pronunciation can be fatal.
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