The ESV says, I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites,
which pits Jephthah and his people against the Ammonites. This translation smooths out an odd construction in the Hebrew, and thereby covers over an important nuance. Literally, Jephthah says, I was a man of contention, I and my people and the Ammonites.
There is nothing in the original that warrants the usual pairing in translations of I
and my people
against the Ammonites.
Rather, what Jephthah is doing is putting a stress on himself as a man of contention, with a view to reminding the Ephraimites that “his entire public life has been characterized by contention, first with his own people (an allusion to Judges 11:1–11), and then with the Ammonites (an allusion to Judges 11:12–29, Judges 11:32–33)."1 The Ephraimites had earlier accused [Gideon] fiercely
(Judges 8:1) and the term for accused
is the verb form of the noun contention
in Judges 12:2. Thus, the Ephraimites may have met their match in Jephthah.
2 And Jephthah said to them, “I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand.