Judges 8:18

Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna,.... Not at Penuel or Succoth, but when he had brought them into the land of Canaan, and perhaps to his own city Ophrah: what manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor?

Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.

What manner of men, i.e. for outward shape and quality? At Tabor; whither he understood they fled for shelter, upon the approach of the Midianites; and where he learnt that some were slain, which he suspected might be they. Each one resembled the children of a king; not for their garb, or outward splendour, for the family was but mean; but for the majesty of their looks; by which commendation they thought to ingratiate themselves with their conqueror.

Judges 8:18 Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men [were they] whom ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou [art], so [were] they; each one resembled the children of a king.Ver. 18. Whom ye slew at Tabor.] The sword spareth neither lord nor ragamuffin. Each one resembled the children of a king.] They were goodly and lovely personages: this they spake to ingratiate. But why were they so cruel as to kill such as whose beauty, that flower of virtue, bespake more lenity?

(18) Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna.—They had been kept alive in order to answer the cowardly taunt of the elders of Succoth. There is nothing to show whether they were put to death at Succoth, as Josephus says, or taken to Ophrah (Antt. iv. 7, § 5). Perhaps Gideon reserved their death for the place where he had once lived with his brothers, whom they had slain. What manner of men were they.—Literally, where (are) the men? Evidently this colloquy is only related in a shortened form, and Gideon’s enquiry is rather a taunt or an expression of grief (Job 17:15), to show them that he now meant to act as the goel, or blood-avenger of his brothers. Up till this time these great chiefs seem to have been led in triumph on their camels, in all their splendid apparel and golden ornaments; and they may have thought, with Agag, that the bitterness of death was passed. Whom ye slew at Tabor?—We are left completely in the dark as to the circumstances of this battle, or massacre. In the complete uncertainty as to all the details of the chronology, it is not impossible that Gideon’s brothers—at least three or four in number—may have perished in Barak’s “battle of Mount Tabor,” or in some early struggle of this Midianite invasion, or in the first night battle (Judges 7:22). As thou . . . so they.—A similar phrase occurs in 1 Kings 22:4. Resembled the children of a king.—We learn from this reference that Gideon added to his other gifts that tall, commanding presence which always carried weight in early days (1 Samuel 10:24; 1 Samuel 16:6-7). In Iliad, iii. 170, Priam says: “One so fair I never saw with my eyes, nor so stately, for he is like a king” (βασιλῆἰγἀράνδρὶἔξικεν).

Verse 18. What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor?] We have no antecedent to this question; and are obliged to conjecture one: it seems as if Zebah and Zalmunna had massacred the family of Gideon, while he was absent on this expedition. Gideon had heard some confused account of it, and now questions them concerning the fact. They boldly acknowledge it, and describe the persons whom they slew, by which he found they were his own brethren. This determines him to avenge their death by slaying the Midianitish kings, whom he otherwise was inclined to save. He might have heard that his brethren had been taken prisoners, and might have hoped to have exchanged them for the kings now in his hand; but when he found they had been all slain, he decrees the death of their murderers. There is something in this account similar to that in the 12th AEneis of Virgil: - When Turnus was overthrown, and supplicated for his life, and AEneas was inclined to spare him; he saw the belt of his friend Pallas, whom Turnus had slain, and which he now wore as a trophy: this immediately determined the Trojan to sacrifice the life of Turnus to the manes of his friend. The story is well told: - Stetit acer in armis AEneas, volvens oculos, dextramque repressit. Et jam jamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo Coeperat: infelix humero cum apparuit ingens Balteus, et notis fulserunt cingula bullis Pallantis pueri; victum quem vulnere Turnus Straverat, atque humeris inimicum insigne gerebat. Ille oculis postquam saevi monumenta doloris Exuviasque hausit: furiis accensus et ira Terribilis: Tune hinc spoliis indute meorum Eripiare mihi?.-Pallas, te hoc vulnere Pallas Immolat; et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit. Hoc dicens furrum adverso sub pectore condit Fervidus. VIRG. AEn. lib. xii., ver. 938. "In deep suspense the Trojan seem'd to stand, And, just prepared to strike, repress'd his hand. He roll'd his eyes, and every moment felt His manly soul with more compassion melt. When, casting down a casual glance, he spied The golden belt that glitter'd on his side; The fatal spoils which haughty Turnus tore From dying Pallas, and in triumph wore. Then roused anew to wrath, he loudly cries, (Flames, while he spoke, came flashing from his eyes,) Traitor! dost thou! dost thou to grace pretend, Clad, as thou art, in trophies of my friend? -- To his sad soul a grateful offering go; 'Tis Pallas, Pallas gives this deadly blow. He rais'd his arm aloft; and at the word, Deep in his bosom drove the shining sword." DRYDEN. The same principle impels Gideon to slay Zebah and Zalmunna which induced AEneas to kill Turnus: and perhaps the ornaments which he took from their camels' necks, Judges 8:21, were some of the spoils of his slaughtered brethren.

18. at Tabor] Mt Tabor is too far north if, as seems probable, Gideon’s clan was settled near Shechem; see on Judges 6:11. There may have been another Tabor near Ophrah. As thou art, so were they] powerful men, cf. Judges 6:12. The chiefs do not hesitate to boast of victims so distinguished.

What manner of men - literally, “Where are the men?” The sense, “what manner of men”, is merely gathered from the tenor of the answer.

OF ZEBAH AND , Judges 8:18-21. 18. What manner of men — What was their appearance and general bearing?