OET interlinear HERO (JDG) 12:6

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

אֱמָר־נָ֨א שִׁבֹּ֜לֶת

say now (Some words not found in UHB: and=they_said to=him/it say now shibboleth and=he/it_said sibboleth and=not he_could to,speak yes/correct/thus/so and,they_seized ,him and,they,slaughtered_him to/towards fords_of of,the_Jordan and,it_fell at,time (the),that of,Ephraim forty and,two thousand )

The word Shibboleth could mean either a stream or an ear of corn, but the meaning of the word was not important. What mattered was its pronunciation. Alternate translation: [Please say ‘Shibboleth,’” because they wanted to hear whether he could make the “sh” sound]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

וַ⁠יִּפֹּ֞ל בָּ⁠עֵ֤ת הַ⁠הִיא֙ מֵֽ⁠אֶפְרַ֔יִם אַרְבָּעִ֥ים וּ⁠שְׁנַ֖יִם אָֽלֶף

(Some words not found in UHB: and=they_said to=him/it say now shibboleth and=he/it_said sibboleth and=not he_could to,speak yes/correct/thus/so and,they_seized ,him and,they,slaughtered_him to/towards fords_of of,the_Jordan and,it_fell at,time (the),that of,Ephraim forty and,two thousand )

The author is using the action of falling to represent dying in battle, by association with the way soldiers fall down when they die. Alternate translation: [And at that time 42,000 from Ephraim died in battle]