Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me out of their hand.
Unfortunately Jephthah treated his own brethren, the Ephraimites, as he had dealt with Israel’s enemy, the Ammonites. He unleashed his zeal and took vengeance far out of proportion to what might have been legitimate.