Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 12:5

"And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And it was so, that, when [any of] the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;" — Judges 12:5 (ASV)

Took the passages of Jordan. —Only through these fords could the Ephraimites escape to their own tribe. (Judges 7:24.) But while it was excusable to cut off all escape from a dangerous foreign invader, it showed a terrible exasperation to leave no chance of flight to Israelites in a civil war.

Before the Ephraimites. —Literally, to Ephraim, which perhaps means “towards, or in the direction of, Ephraim” (per quae Ephraim, reversurus erat, Vulgate).

When those Ephraimites which were escaped. —The fact that the Hebrew phrase is exactly the same as in Judges 12:4, fugitives of Ephraim, adds great additional force to the view that we have adopted. If the rendering of the English Version is adopted in Judges 12:4, we can only suppose that there is a bitter retribution implied in the words. The Ephraimites had taunted the Eastern Manassites with being fugitives of Ephraim, and in the next verse they themselves appear to be in another, but fatal, sense fugitives of Ephraim.

Art thou an Ephraimite? —There must have been considerable traffic across the Jordan fords, and the object was to distinguish between Ephraimite fugitives and harmless travellers and merchants.