Those Ephraimites which were escaped, Heb. the fugitives of Ephraim, as before; for the Hebrew words are the same; which may make the latter exposition of the foregoing words more probable, to wit, that it is not the Gileadites, but the Ephraimites, who are there as well as here so called, because they are smitten before Jephthah, and fled from him. If he said, Nay; to avoid the present danger.
Related Commentaries of Judges 12:5
Judges 12:5
5 And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;