‘ Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim, and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim because they said, “You Gileadites, you are fugitives of Ephraim in the midst of Ephraim, and in the midst of Manasseh.” '
The Epraimites made an insulting reply. They had already determined to teach this upstart a lesson. They accused the Gileadites of being inferior, ‘fugitives of Ephraim'. Possibly this suggested that they could be seen as having run away from them to a safe place across the Jordan. Or it may signify that their position should be one of subservience to Ephraim from whom they were now ‘fleeing'. They should recognise their inferiority and not forget their place. They should recognise that they were part of, and owed what they had to, the Ephraim-Manasseh alliance of brothers east of Jordan, Ephraim being the superior partner, who were responsible for them and from whom they had, in a cowardly way, withdrawn and hidden themselves across the Jordan. They needed to be suitably repentant and submissive and recognise their place. It was deliberately provocative.
There could be only one reply. Having showed the message to the elders of Gilead Jephthah gathered the fighting men of Gilead and attacked the Ephraimites, thoroughly defeating them