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sebel
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 a rare example that proves 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 and instead would say סבל , a fact which ended poorly for thousands of Ephriamite refugees who were attempting to cross the Ephraimite controlled river crossing.
The Ephraimites would definitely agree with our assessment that pronunciation in Hebrew is somewhat fraught with difficulty.
LexID 7641