Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 12:3

"And when I saw that ye saved me not, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Jehovah delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me?" — Judges 12:3 (ASV)

I put my life in my hands. —Rather, in the hollow of my hand (caph). (For this phrase, see Psalm 119:109; Job 13:14; 1 Samuel 20:5; 1 Samuel 28:21.) It expresses extreme peril.

The Lord delivered them into my hand. —Here the word for “hand” is yad. Here, as he had done in arguing with the king of the Ammonites (Judges 11:21–24), Jephthah appeals to the decision of Jehovah, as proving that he had done rightly.

Why then have you come up ... ? —For the phrase “come up” see Judges 1:1-16. Jephthah’s answer is as moderate as Gideon’s (Judges 8:2–3), though it does not display the same skillful tact, and refers to topics which could only be irritating. Whether it was made in a conciliatory spirit or not, we cannot tell. Certainly, if Ephraim persisted in aggressive violence after these explanations, they placed themselves so flagrantly in the wrong that civil war became inevitable.