John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 2. And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at a great strife with the children of Ammon , etc.] 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.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 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 in common, especially upon those under outward disadvantages. It ofte occasions quarrels that prove of ill consequence, as it did here. N contentions are so bitter as those between brethren or rivals for honour. What need we have to watch and pray against evil tempers! Ma the Lord incline all his people to follow after things which make for peace!
Original Hebrew ויאמר559 יפתח3316 אליהם413 אישׁ376 ריב7379 הייתי1961 אני589 ועמי5971 ובני1121 עמון5983 מאד3966 ואזעק2199 אתכם853 ולא3808 הושׁעתם3467 אותי853 מידם׃3027
