³⁰ "If you will give me power over the Ammonites, ³¹ then whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return victorious from the Ammonites will belong to YHWH, and I will sacrifice it up as a burnt offering." (11:30b-31)

    Jephthah was successful in battle, but when he returned home the first to greet him was his daughter. With grace she accepted her fate and had only one request, that she be allowed to roam the hills and weep with her friends, for she was a virgin.
    After the victory of the Jephthah-led Gileadites, the Israelites of Ephraim attacked the Israelites of Gilead because they felt slighted, having been left out of the Ammonite conflict. The Gileadites took control of the ford between Gilead and Ephraim and killed any man that could not pronounce the password, shibboleth, as they did. Ephraimites were immediately identified because they said sibboleth, a dialectal variation. The term has entered the English language and means "test word."

Shibboleth. "A word or sound which a person is unable to pronounce correctly; a word used as a test for detecting foreigners, or persons from another district, by their pronunciation. A peculiarity of pronunciation or accent indicative of a person's origin. A catchword or formula adopted by a party or sect, by which their adherents or followers may be discerned, or those not their followers may be excluded." (Oxford English Dictionary)