Then Jephthah] That is, when he saw them so obstinate that no words or reasons would satisfie them. Ye Gileadites are fugitives] That is, the refuse of two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, and so a mungll generation out of the mixture of both, as dwelling upon the passages of Jordan, just between those two tribes; and therefore ye ought not to have undertaken a matter of such importance, as this war, without our knowledge, and allowance, you being so base, and we so noble: And by this scornfull reproach and contempt, they incensed the Gileadites to their own ruine.