Judges 12:2

2 To which he answered, Great strife was to me and to my people against the sons of Ammon, and I called you, that ye should give help to me, and you would not do so. (To whom he answered, There was great strife between me and my people and the Ammonites, and I called on you, to give me help, but ye would not do so.)

Judges 12:2 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 12:2

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.

Judges 12:2 In-Context

1 And, lo! dissension (a)rose in Ephraim; for they, that passed toward the north (who crossed over to Zaphon), said to Jephthah, Why wentest thou to battle against the sons of Ammon, and wouldest not call us, (so) that we should go with thee. Therefore we shall burn (down) thine house.

2 To which he answered, Great strife was to me and to my people against the sons of Ammon, and I called you, that ye should give help to me, and you would not do so. (To whom he answered, There was great strife between me and my people and the Ammonites, and I called on you, to give me help, but ye would not do so.)

3 Which thing I saw, and putted my life in mine hands; and I passed (forth) to the sons of Ammon, and the Lord betook them into mine hands; what have I (done that I) deserved, that ye rise together against me into battle? (so what have I done that I deserve that ye rise up against me in battle?)

4 Therefore when all the men of Gilead were called to Jephthah, he fought against Ephraim; and [the] men of Gilead smote Ephraim; for he said (for they said), Gilead is fugitive, either exiled, from Ephraim, and in the midst of Ephraim, and of Manasseh.

5 And the men of Gilead occupied the fords of (the) Jordan, by which Ephraim should turn again. And when a man, fleeing of the number of Ephraim, had come to the fords, and had said, I beseech, that ye suffer me pass; men of Gilead said to him, Whether thou art a man of Ephraim? And when he had said, I am not (And when a man, fleeing from the Ephraimites, had come to the crossing, and had said, I beseech thee, that ye allow me to cross over; the men of Gilead said to him, Art thou a man of Ephraim? And when he had said, I am not),