Judges 12:3

I put my life in my hands. — Rather, in the hollow of my hand (caph). (See for the phrase, Psalms 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), Jephthah appeals to the decision of Jehovah, as proving that he had done rightly.

Wherefore then are ye come up... ? — For the phrase “come up” see Judges 1:1. Jephthah’s answer is as moderate as Gideon’s (Judges 8:2), though it does not display the same happy tact, and refers to topics which could not but 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.