Zaphon

Zaphon was a town in Gad's eastern allotment in the Jordan Valley north of Succoth (Joshua 13:27). Judges 12:1 records how the men of Ephraim crossed to Zaphon to confront Jephthah, furious he had not summoned them against Ammon. The encounter erupted into civil war: Jephthah's Gileadites routed Ephraim, then seized the Jordan fords against the fleeing survivors, demanding each pronounce the password "Shibboleth." Ephraimites whose dialect lacked the "sh" sound gave themselves away with "Sibboleth" and were killed — "there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand" (Judges 12:6).