Judges 12:2

And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon.—Literally, I was a man of strife, I and my people, and the children of Ammon exceedingly. We have a similar phrase in Jeremiah 15:10. Jephthah adopts the tone of a recognised chief, as he had done to the Ammonites.

And when I called you, ye delivered me not.—Ephraim was not immediately affected by the Ammonite oppression, any more than it had been by the Midianite. The effect of those raids was felt chiefly by Manasseh and by the Eastern tribes. Hence the Ephraimites held themselves selfishly aloof. That we are not told of this previous appeal of the Gileadites to Ephraim illustrates the compression of the narrative. We cannot tell whether it took place before or after the summons of the Gileadites to Jephthah.

Benson Commentary

Jdg 12:2-3. When I called you, ye delivered me not — He answers them with great mildness, but denies their charge. He affirms that he had begged their assistance, but they had refused to grant it. When I saw that ye delivered me not — When I became sensible that there was no hope of your assistance to preserve us from ruin; I put my life in my hand — That is, I exposed myself to the utmost danger; as a man that carries a brittle and precious thing in his hand, which may easily either fall to the ground or be snatched from him. He had but a small part of the people of Israel with him, to encounter their powerful oppressors. And passed over against the children of Ammon — With such forces only as I could raise on the east of Jordan, Jdg 11:29-30. Wherefore are ye come up? — Why do ye thus requite my kindness in running such hazards to defend and preserve you and yours? Jephthah here manifests an excellent spirit and great wisdom. He would have prevented the civil war had it been possible.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1-7 The Ephraimites had the same quarrel with Jephthah as with Gideon. Pride was at the bottom of the quarrel; only by that comes contention. It is ill to fasten names of reproach upon persons or countries, as is common, especially upon those under outward disadvantages. It often occasions quarrels that prove of ill consequence, as it did here. No contentions are so bitter as those between brethren or rivals for honour. What need we have to watch and pray against evil tempers! May the Lord incline all his people to follow after things which make for peace!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

When I called you ... - This circumstance is not related in the main narrative. It is likely to have occurred when Jephthah was first chosen leader by the Gileadites, and when Ephraim would probably ignore his pretensions.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands—The straightforward answer of Jephthah shows that their charge was false; their complaint of not being treated as confederates and allies entirely without foundation; and their boast of a ready contribution of their services came with an ill grace from people who had purposely delayed appearing till the crisis was past.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Hence it appears that he craved their assistance, which they denied, though that be not elsewhere expressed.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at a great strife with the children of Ammon,.... As to the cause of the war, or the reason of his going over to fight the children of Ammon, it was a strife or contention between the Gileadites and them, concerning their country; which the children of Ammon claimed as theirs, and the Gileadites insisted on it they had a just right to it; by which it appeared that this was not a personal contention between Jephthah and them; and therefore the Ephraimites had no reason to fall so furiously upon him particularly; and it was a contention which chiefly concerned the two tribes and a half, and not the rest; and so could not be blamed for defending themselves alone if they could, without interesting others in the quarrel: but this is not all he has to say, he adds:

and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands; it seems he had called them to assist in driving the enemy out of their boarders when there, and they refused to help him; though it is not elsewhere said, and it is not denied by them, so that it was false what they alleged; or however, since they declined giving him any assistance, when the children of Ammon were in his country, he could not expect they would join him in an expedition into theirs.

Geneva Study Bible

And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. were at great strife with the children of Ammon] lit. ‘I was at strife, I and my people, and the children of A. exceedingly.’ Supply afflicted me in the last clause, with LXX. cod. A, Luc. etc., Syro-Hex. The verb (‘innûni) was accidentally omitted, probably owing to its resemblance to ‘Ammon. Jephthah identifies himself with his people, as in Jdg 11:12.

when I called you] The summons is not mentioned in ch. 11, but it may be implied in Jdg 11:29; see note.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - When I called you. This incident is not mentioned in the previous narrative. Probably Jephthah asked the help of Ephraim when he was first made chief of the Gileadites, and they refused partly because they thought the attempt desperate, and partly because they were offended at Jephthah's leadership. Judges 12:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jephthah's War with the Ephraimites, and Office of Judge. - Judges 12:1. The jealousy of the tribe of Ephraim, which was striving after the leadership, had already shown itself in the time of Gideon in such a way that nothing but the moderation of that judge averted open hostilities. And now that the tribes on the east of the Jordan had conquered the Ammonites under the command of Jephthah without the co-operation of the Ephraimites, Ephraim thought it necessary to assert its claim to take the lead in Israel in a very forcible manner. The Ephraimites gathered themselves together, and went over צפונה. This is generally regarded as an appellative noun (northward); but in all probability it is a proper name, "to Zaphon," the city of the Gadites in the Jordan valley, which is mentioned in Joshua 13:27 along with Succoth, that is to say, according to a statement of the Gemara, though of a very uncertain character no doubt, Ἀμαθοῦς (Joseph. Ant. xiii. 13, 5, xiv. 5, 4; Bell. Judg. i. 4, 2, Reland, Pal. pp. 308 and 559-60), the modern ruins of Amata on the Wady Rajb or Ajlun, the situation of which would suit this passage very well. They then threatened Jephthah, because he had made war upon the Ammonites without them, and said, "We will burn thy house over thee with fire." Their arrogance and threat Jephthah opposed most energetically. He replied (Judges 12:2, Judges 12:3), "A man of strife have I been, I and my people on the one hand, and the children of Ammon on the other, very greatly," i.e., I and my people had a severe conflict with the Ammonites. "Then I called you, but ye did not deliver me out of their hand; and when I saw that thou (Ephraim) didst not help me, I put my life in my hand" (i.e., I risked my own life: see 1 Samuel 19:5; 1 Samuel 28:21; Job 13:14. The Kethibh אישׂמה comes from ישׂם: cf. Genesis 24:33), "and I went against the Ammonites, and Jehovah gave them into my hand." Jephthah's appeal to the Ephraimites to fight against the Ammonites it not mentioned in Judges 11, probably for no other reason than because it was without effect. The Ephraimites, however, had very likely refused their co-operation simply because the Gileadites had appointed Jephthah as commander without consulting them. Consequently the Ephraimites had no ground whatever for rising up against Jephthah and the Gileadites in this haughty and hostile manner; and Jephthah had a perfect right not only to ask them, "Wherefore are ye come up against me now (lit. 'this day'), to fight against me?" but to resist such conduct with the sword.