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.
When the Ephraimites had confronted Gideon, he responded with psychology (Judges 8:1-3). Jephthah was a different kind of person from Gideon, however. He responded with a sword. Jephthah was a nobody, and nobodies are often unimpressed with people who think they are somebodies, as the Ephraimites did.