The men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you served us thus, that you didn't call us, when you went to fight with Midian? They did chide with him sharply.
The pride and conceit of Ephraim as the most powerful of the tribes of Israel is evident in this.  Their inheritance in the mountains had preserved them from many of the marauding expeditions of Israel's enemies. Joshua had been of their tribe, and Bethel and Shiloh in their territory were the earliest locations of the Tabernacle, thus making Ephraim somewhat like the religious capital of the Twelve Tribes.