שבל

'sebel' means the head of a grain. In English this is similar to the “cob” of corn, or “ear” of wheat.

Interestingly, this word figures prominently in one of the most explicit examples that prove that pronunciation was not entirely standardized in ancient Hebrew.

Judges 12 tells the story of one of many “minor” civil wars between Hebrew communities. In this instance, the community of Ephriamites attacked the Gileadites, but we're thwarted, resulting in the subsequent slaughter of 42,000 Gileadite prisoners of war.

The Ephraimite could not pronounce שבל in the typical way; “shebel”, and instead would say סבל (“sebel”), a fact which belied their disguise and ended poorly for thousands of Ephriamite refugees who were attempting to cross the Ephraimite controlled river crossing.

Undoubtedly, the greiving families of the slain Ephraimites would agree with our assessment that pronunciation in Hebrew is somewhat fraught with difficulty.

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LexID 7641