Księga Sędziów 12:6

Biblia Tysiąclecia

Tedy mu mówili: Wymówże teraz Szybolet; jeźli rzekł: Sybolet, a inaczej nie mógł wymówić, tedy pojmawszy go, zabijali go u brodu Jordańskiego. I poległo na on czas z Efraima czterdzieści i dwa tysiące.

Parallel Translations

Biblia Brzeska (1563)
Tedy mu mówili: Wymów teraz Schibbolet, a jesli rzekł Sybbolet, a inacej nie mógł wymówić, tedy go tamże u brodu Jordanu ułapiwszy zamordowali. I poległo na ten czas z Efraim ludu czterdzieści i dwa tysiąca.

Biblia Gdańska (1632)
Tedy mu mówili: Wymówże teraz Szybolet; jeźli rzekł: Sybolet, a inaczej nie mógł wymówić, tedy pojmawszy go, zabijali go u brodu Jordańskiego. I poległo na on czas z Efraima czterdzieści i dwa tysiące.

Nowe Przymierze Zaremba
wtedy nakazywali mu: Powiedz: szibbolet. Jeśli mówił: sibbolet, bo nie potrafił wymówić inaczej, wtedy chwytali go i zabijali tam, w miejscach przepraw przez Jordan. I zginęło w tym czasie czterdzieści dwa tysiące Efraimitów.

Nowa Biblia Gdańska (2012)
wtedy mu mówili: Powtórz: Szybbolet. Zaś gdy powiedział: Sibbolet – ponieważ nie starał się poprawnie wymawiać – ujęli go i mordowali przy brodach Jardenu. Tak wówczas padło z Efraima czterdzieści dwa tysiące.

Uwspółcześniona Biblia Gdańska
Wtedy mówili do niego: Wymów teraz: szibbolet, a ten mówił: sibbolet, bo inaczej nie mógł wymówić. Wtedy chwytali go i zabijali przy brodach Jordanu. I poległo w tym czasie z Efraima czterdzieści dwa tysiące.

Biblia Warszawska
Wtedy mówili do niego: Powiedz Szibbolet, a ten wymawiał Sibbolet, bo nie mógł wymówić inaczej. Wtedy go chwytano i zabijano przy brodach jordańskich. W tym czasie padło z Efraimitów czterdzieści dwa tysiące.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Say now: Matthew 26:73, Mark 14:70

Shibboleth: which signifieth a stream, or flood, Psalms 69:2, Psalms 69:15, Isaiah 27:12, *Heb: Shibboleth also means an ear of corn (Job 24:24), and sibboleth signifies a burden - Exodus 6:6, and a heavy burden they were obliged to bear who could not pronounce this test letter. It is well known that several nations cannot pronounce certain letters. The sound of th cannot be pronounced by the Persians, no more than by some of our Continental neighbours; though it is a common sound among the Arabians. To this day, many of the German Jews cannot articulate ת th, for which they substitute ss; thus for baith, a house, they say baiss.

there fell: Proverbs 17:14, Proverbs 18:19, Ecclesiastes 10:12, Matthew 12:25, Galatians 5:15

forty: Arbaim ooshenayim aleph, "forty and two thousand." Here the ו, and, may mean simple addition; and this number may denote 2,040 and not 42,000. At the last census of the Israelites (Numbers 26:37) the whole tribe of Ephraim only amounted to 32,500, compared with which this last number appears far too great.

Reciprocal: Judges 18:3 - they knew Isaiah 29:21 - make

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then said they unto him, say now "Shibboleth",.... Which signifies a stream or course of water, at which they now were; and so it was as if they had bid them say,

"may I, or let me, pass over the stream of this river;''

so Jarchi; and this being the case, though it was done to try them, and by their pronunciation learn whether they were Ephraimites or not, they were not upon their guard, but in an hurry, and at once expressed the word as they commonly did:

and he said, sibboleth; pronouncing the letter "shin" as if it was "sin", or a "samech"; just as the French, as Kimchi observes, pronounce "s" like a "t"; and though the Gileadites and Ephraimites were of the same nation of Israel, and spoke the same language, yet their pronunciation differed, as did that of the Galilean Jews from others in the times of Christ, Matthew 26:73, and so in all nations, among the Greeks, Romans, and among ourselves, people in different counties pronounce in a different manner; which Kimchi thinks was in the Ephraimites owing to the air or climate, as the French, he observes, pronounce "s" as a "t", with a soft and gentle sound:

for he could not frame to pronounce it right; or "thus" t, as he was bid to do; being used to pronounce otherwise, he could not frame the organs of speech, or so dispose and order them as to say "shibboleth"; or he did not frame, order, and dispose u; he was not careful to do it, though with some care he could, being not aware of the design of the Gileadites in it:

then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan; everyone as they came thither, who could not say "shibboleth"; these they suffered not to pass over, but slew them:

and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand; not at the passages of Jordan only; but what fell there, with those at the battle, and in the pursuit, amounted to this number; so that the Ephraimites paid dearly for their pride and insolence.

t כן "sic", Pagninus, Montanus. u לא נכון "non dirigebat", Montanus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth - This is a curious instance of dialectic difference of pronunciation between the East and West Jordanic tribes. It is an evidence of the sound “sh” having passed into the Hebrew from the East of Jordan, possibly from the Arabians, with whom the sound is common.

Forty-two thousand - The number includes the slain in battle and those killed at the fords.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 12:6. Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth — The original differs only in the first letter ס samech, instead of ש sheen; אמר נא שבלת ויאמר סבלת emar na Shibboleth, vaiyomer Sibboleth. The difference between ש seen, without a point, which when pointed is pronounced sheen, and ס samech, is supposed by many to be imperceptible. But there can be no doubt there was, to the ears of a Hebrew, a most sensible distinction. Most Europeans, and, indeed, most who have written grammars of the language, perceive scarcely any difference between the Arabic [Arabic] seen and [Arabic] saad; but as both those letters are radical not only in Arabic but in Hebrew, the difference of enunciation must be such as to be plainly perceivable by the ear; else it would be impossible to determine the root of a word into which either of these letters entered, except by guessing, unless by pronunciation the sounds were distinct. One to whom the Arabic is vernacular, hearing a native speak, discerns it in a moment; but the delicate enunciation of the characteristic difference between those letters ש seen and ס samech, and [Arabic] seen and [Arabic] saad, is seldom caught by a European. Had there been no distinction between the ש seen and ס samech but what the Masoretic point gives now, then ס samech would not have been used in the word סבלת sibboleth, but ש seen, thus שבלת: but there must have been a very remarkable difference in the pronunciation of the Ephraimites, when instead of שבלת shibboleth, an ear of corn, (see Job 24:24), they said סבלת sibboleth, which signifies a burden, Exodus 6:6; and a heavy burden were they obliged to bear who could not pronounce this test letter. It is likely that the Ephraimites were, in reference to the pronunciation of sh, as different from the Gileadites as the people in some parts of the north of England are, in the pronunciation of the letter r, from all the other inhabitants of the land. The sound of th cannot be pronounced by the Persians in general; and yet it is a common sound among the Arabians. To this day multitudes of the German Jews cannot pronounce ת th, but put ss in the stead of it: thus for בית beith (a house) they say bess.

Mr. Richardson, in his "Dissertation on the Languages, Literature, and Manners of the Eastern Nations," prefixed to his Persian and Arabic Dictionary, p. ii., 4to. edition, makes some observations on the different dialects which prevailed in Arabia Felix, the chief of which were the Hemyaret and Koreish; and to illustrate the point in hand, he produces the following story from the Mohammedan writers: "An envoy from one of the feudatory states, having been sent to the tobba, (the sovereign,) that prince, when he was introduced, pronounced the word T'heb, which in the Hemyaret implied, Be seated: unhappily it signified, in the native dialect of the ambassador, Precipitate thyself; and he, with a singular deference for the orders of his sovereign, threw himself instantly from the castle wall and perished." Though the Ephraimites had not a different dialect, they had, it appears, a different pronunciation, which confounded, to others, letters of the same organ, and thus produced, not only a different sound, but even an opposite meaning. This was a sufficient test to find out an Ephraimite; and he who spake not as he was commanded, at the fords of Jordan, spoke against his own life.

For he could not frame to pronounce it right. — This is not a bad rendering of the original ולא יכין לדבר כן velo yachin ledabber ken; "and they did not direct to speak it thus." But instead of יכין yachin, to direct, thirteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with two ancient editions, read יבין yabin; "they did not understand to speak it thus."

The versions take great latitude in this verse. The Vulgate makes a paraphrase: Dic ergo Shibboleth, quod interpretatur spica: qui respondebat Sibboleth; eadem litera spicam exprimere non valens. "Say therefore, Shibboleth; which interpreted is an ear of corn: but he answered, Sibboleth; not being able to express an ear of corn by that letter." In my very ancient copy of the Vulgate, probably the editio princeps, there is sebboleth in the first instance as the test word, and thebboleth as the Ephraimite pronunciation. But cebboleth is the reading of the Complutensian Polyglot, and is supported by one of my own MSS., yet the former reading, thebboleth, is found in two of my MSS. The Chaldee has שובלתא shubbaltha for the Gileaditish pronunciation, and סבלתא subbaltha for that of Ephraim. The Syriac has [Syriac] shelba and [Syriac] sebla. The Arabic has the same word, with [Arabic] sheen and [Arabic] seen; and adds, "He said Sebla, for the Ephraimites could not pronounce the letter sheen." These notices, however trivial at first view, will not be thought unimportant by the Biblical critic.