We meet with this word Judges x2: 6; and the history connected with it concerning the men of Ephraim is not a little singular. Wherefore they could not pronounce it, is not easily explained. They used the Samech instead of the Shin. It is blessed for us that our gospel privileges are given to us upon very different terms - - when we cannot speak of them, yet looking to Christ we are blessed in them.
“an ear of corn,” was a word which the Gileadites used as the test of an Ephraimite. For the Ephraimites could not, from disuse, pronounce the Hebrew letter shin; therefore, they said Sibboleth instead of Shibboleth, Jdg 12:6. The Greeks, says Hartley, have not the sound sh in their language: hence they are liable to be detected, like the Ephraimites. I was struck with this circumstance, in learning Turkish from a Greek tutor; pasha, he pronounced pasa; shimdi, he called simdi; Dervish, Dervis, &c.
Shibboleth he would, of course, pronounce Sibboleth.
Shib´boleth. The word means a stream or flood, and was hence naturally suggested to the followers of Jephthah, when, having seized the fords of the Jordan to prevent the retreat of the defeated Ephraimites, they sought to distinguish them through their known inability to utter the aspirated sound sh. The fugitives gave instead the unaspirated s, sibboleth, on which they were slain without mercy (Jdg 12:6). The certainty which was felt that the Ephraimites could not pronounce sh, is very remarkable, and strongly illustrates the varieties of dialect which had already arisen in Israel, and which perhaps even served to distinguish different tribes, as similar peculiarities distinguish men of different counties with us. If what is here mentioned as the characteristic of a particular tribe had been shared by other tribes, it would not have been sufficiently discriminating as a test.
A stream. In a war between the Ephraimites and the men of Gilead under Jephthah, the former were discomfited, and fled towards the fords of the Jordan. The Gileadites took possession of all these fords, and when an Ephraimite who had escaped came to the riverside and desired to pass over, they asked him if he were not an Ephraimite. It he said, No, they bade him pronounce shibboleth; but he pronouncing it sibboleth, according to the dialect of the Ephraimites, they killed him. In this war there fill 42,000 Ephraimites, Jdg 12:1-15 . This incident should mot be passed over without observing, that it affords proof of dialectical variations among the tribes of the same nation, and speaking the same language, in those early days. There can be no wonder, therefore, if we find in later ages the same word written different ways, according to the pronunciation of different tribes. That this continued, is evident from the peculiarities of the Galilean dialect, by which Peter was discovered to be of that district, Mar 14:70 .\par
Shibboleth. (a stream). Jdg 12:6. Shibboleth is the Hebrew word, which the Gileadites, under Jephthah, made use of at the passage of the Jordan, after a victory over the Ephraimites, to test the pronunciation of the sound, "sh", by those who wished to cross over the river. The Ephraimites, it would appear, in their dialect, substituted for "sh", the simple sound "s"; and the Gileadites, regarding every one who failed to pronounce "sh" as an Ephraimite, and therefore an enemy, put him to death accordingly. In this way, there fell 42,000 Ephraimites. There is no mystery in this particular word. Any word beginning with the sound "sh" would have answered equally well as a test.
("a stream" or "ear of grain".) The Ephraimites, unable to pronounce the aspirate (as indeed the Greeks also have no "sh" sound), said Sibboleth, and so were detected by the Gileadites under Jephthah at the passage of Jordan (Jdg 12:6).
Shibboleth (shĭb’bo-lĕth), stream. A word which the Gileadites required the fugitive Ephraimites to speak, in order to detect by their pronunciation whether or no they were really of that tribe. Jdg 12:4-6. The variations of dialect in the spoken language of Palestine made it difficult for the Ephraimites to speak it.
[Shib’boleth]
A word chosen by the Gileadites - apparently without any reference to its signification, which some take to be ’an ear of corn,’ and others ’a stream’ - by which to ascertain those that were Ephraimites, who pronounced the SH as S, making the word SIBBOLETH. As the men fled from the victorious Jephthah and approached the ford of the river, they were thus tested, and the Ephraimites, who had brought the conflict on themselves, were slain. Jdg 12:6. From this has originated the calling any watchword of a party, or indeed any particular view of truth or doctrine held by a section of the church, a mere ’shibboleth.’
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By: Emil G. Hirsch, S. Hecht
Word occurring in different passages of the Bible, sometimes in the singular form, sometimes in the plural, 
, and once in the status constructus, 
. It means "flood" (Isa. xxvii. 12; Ps. lxix. 3, 16) or "ear of corn" (Job xxiv. 24; Gen. xli. 5, 6; Isa. xvii. 5; Ruth ii. 2) or "branch" (Zech. iv. 12).
The main interest in this word centers in its use in Judges xii. 6, in which passage any other word beginning with "sh" would have served as well (Ḳimḥi supposes that other words were actually used, "shibboleth" being but a typical instance; see G. F. Moore, "Commentary on Judges," p. 308).
After the Gileadites had defeated the men of Ephraim, the conquerors took possession of the fords of the Jordan, with the view of cutting off the retreat of the fleeing Ephraimites. When a fugitive came to the ford and said, "Let me cross," he was asked, "Art thou an Ephraimite?" If he answered "No," the Gileadites put him to a test. "Say 'Shibboleth,'" they demanded; and if he pronounced the word "Sibboleth," this at once betrayed him as an enemy. It is supposed that different dialects existed among the various tribes of Israel, for which supposition there is a clear indication in the Ephraimitic pronunciation of "sh"; and the rarity of similar examples in the literature is accounted for on the ground that all passed through the hands of Judaic editors. Nevertheless instances are extant of the interchange of letters, such as in Amos vii. 9, where
English Jewish Sheṭar, Dated 1286.(In the British Museum.)
SHIBBOLETH (means both ‘ear of corn’ and ‘stream’).—In the strife that arose between the Gileadites, under Jephthah, and the Ephraimites, an episode occurred which is recounted in Jdg 12:1-6. According to this, the Gileadites were holding the fords of Jordan in order to cut off the fugitive Ephraimites; but the only way of differentiating between friend and foe was to test a fugitive as to his pronunciation of such a word as ‘Shibboleth,’ in which the Ephraimite peculiarity of pronouncing sh as s would immediately be noticed. If, on uttering this word, the fugitive pronounced it ‘Sibboleth,’ he was known to be an Ephraimite, and was forthwith slain. In this way there fell, according to the obviously exaggerated account in J
W. O. E. Oesterley.
(Hebrew: ear of corn)
A word used by Jephte as a password by which to distinguish the fleeing Ephraimites from his own men, the Galaadites. If they could not pronounce it, and said "sibboleth" instead, they were put to death (Judges 12); in modern times, a password, a slogan, a peculiarity of pronunciation or accent which indicates a person’s origin.