Sibboleth, Sibboleth ~ poem

Sibboleth, Sibboleth 

I shall die in the river Jordan 

There is no bluing 

To cleanse this heart 

And make it snow 

The rocks cry out in mockery 

Sibboleth, Sibboleth 

You are no son of Ephraim

And the fields of wheat sway 

In the hot wind 

Chanting, ever chanting 

Sibboleth, Sibboleth 

Where is the balm in Gilead? 

O great warrior 

The hills in Mizpah

Remember the virgin's feet 

As she wept for what would never be 

Sibboleth, Sibboleth 

A foolish tongue has followed

All the days of your life

From your father's tongue

That roved the country 

Searching for forbidden tastes

To the march past Mannasseh

And back to Mizpah again 

Now to the river Jordan

At the shore of eternity

Speak Shibboleth and live 

But I am from Gilead 

Sibboleth, Sibboleth.  

Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

Judges 12:6