What Does Judges 8:1 Mean?

(1) **The men of Ephraim.**—The arrogance of this tribe was derived partly from its strength, and partly from the memories of their ancestor Joseph; from the double portion which Joseph had received in memorial of his pre-eminence; from the fact that Jacob, in his blessing, had preferred the younger Ephraim before his elder brother, Manasseh; and from the almost regal influence which had been so long exercised by their tribesman, Joshua. This arrogance was destined, as we shall see later, to bring on them a terrible humiliation (Judges 12:1). The complaint was fiercely urged, probably at the time when, by bringing the heads of Oreb and Zeeb (Judges 7:25), they had proved both their power and their fidelity to the national cause. What they wanted was the acknowledgment of their claims (their *hegemony, *as the Greeks would have called it) by all the tribes. **They did chide with him sharply.**—Literally, *with force *or *violence, *as in 1Samuel 2:16, so that the Vulg. renders it, *jurgantes fortiter, et prope vim inferentes, *“strongly reproaching him, and almost treating him with violence.”