Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites. (Judges 12:4)
The full force of the taunt is lost to us inasmuch as we do not know all the details. It seems that fierce jealousy had sprung up between the Manassites living east of the Jordan, and the rest of Manasseh and their close kinsmen, the Ephraimites, in western Palestine. The Manassites in the east had allowed their close clan and family connections to languish and were throwing in their lot more and more with the pastoral tribes of Reuben and Gad among whom they lived. For this schism in clanship the Ephraimites were taunting them, calling them fugitives, that is, the dregs and lower class of the tribal relatives in the west.
Because they said.
In spite of Jephthah’s reasonable answer, the men of Ephraim seem to have precipitated the conflict by intolerable taunts.
All the men of Gilead.
Probably including all the Israelites east of the Jordan. Signal fires and trumpets could pass the mustering call to the villages of the eastern tribes within a very short time.