This word appears in Judges 12:6 in the famous test used by Gileadites to identify fleeing Ephraimites. Unable to pronounce the 'sh' sound, Ephraimites said 'Sibboleth' instead of 'Shibboleth.' This dialectal difference became a lethal shibboleth (in the modern sense)—a test revealing identity. The word itself probably means 'flowing stream' or possibly 'ear of grain,' but the narrative focuses on pronunciation rather than meaning. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites died because their dialect betrayed them, making this the earliest recorded example of linguistic profiling.