We analyze a general class of difference operators containing a multi-well potential and a small parameter. We decouple the wells by introducing certain Dirichlet operators on regions containing only one potential well, and we treat the eigenvalue problem as a small perturbation of these comparison problems. We describe tunneling by a certain interaction matrix similar to the analysis for the Schrödinger operator, and estimate the remainder, which is exponentially small and roughly quadratic compared with the interaction matrix.