12:1 The Ephraimites assembled 1 and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight 2 with the Ammonites without asking 3 us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” 4
12:2 Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites. 5 I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power. 6 12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, 7 I risked my life 8 and advanced against 9 the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up 10 to fight with me today?” 12:4 Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying, 11 “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” 12
1 tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”
2 tn Heb “cross over to fight.”
3 tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”
4 tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”
5 tn Heb A man of great strife I was and my people and the Ammonites.”
6 tn Heb “hand.”
7 tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”
8 tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”
9 tn Heb “crossed over to.”
10 tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
11 tn Heb “because they said.”
12 tc Heb “Refugees of Ephraim are you, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” The LXX omits the entire second half of the verse (beginning with “because”). The words כִּי אָמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם (ki ’amru pÿlitey ’efrayim, “because they said, ‘Refugees of Ephraim’”) may have been accidentally copied from the next verse (cf. כִּי יֹאמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם, ki yo’mÿru pelitey ’efrayim) and the following words (“you, O Gilead…Manasseh”) then added in an attempt to make sense of the verse. See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 307-8, and C. F. Burney, Judges, 327. If the Hebrew text is retained, then the Ephraimites appear to be insulting the Gileadites by describing them as refugees who are squatting on Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s land. The present translation assumes that “Ephraim” is a genitive of location after “refugees.”