The men of Ephraim. — The arrogance of this tribe was derived partly from its strength, and partly from the memories of their ancestor Joseph; from the double portion which Joseph had received in memorial of his pre-eminence; from the fact that Jacob, in his blessing, had preferred the younger Ephraim before his elder brother, Manasseh; and from the almost regal influence which had been so long exercised by their tribesman, Joshua. This arrogance was destined, as we shall see later, to bring on them a terrible humiliation (Judges 12:1). The complaint was fiercely urged, probably at the time when, by bringing the heads of Oreb and Zeeb (Judges 7:25), they had proved both their power and their fidelity to the national cause. What they wanted was the acknowledgment of their claims (their hegemony, as the Greeks would have called it) by all the tribes.
They did chide with him sharply. — Literally, with force or violence, as in 1 Samuel 2:16, so that the Vulg. renders it, jurgantes fortiter, et prope vim inferentes, “strongly reproaching him, and almost treating him with violence.”