Judg 8:18-21 | Clarke | STEP | 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, , were some of the spoils of his slaughtered brethren.

Judges 8:18-21

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, Jdg 8:21, were some of the spoils of his slaughtered brethren. Verse 20

He said unto Jether his first-born - By the ancient laws of war, prisoners taken in war might be either slain, sold, or kept for slaves. To put a captive enemy to death no executioner was required. Gideon slays Zebah and Zalmunna with his own hand. So Samuel is said to have hewn Agag in pieces, 1Sam 15:33. Benaiah slew Joab, 1Kgs 2:25. Saul orders his guards to slay the priests who had contributed to the escape of David, 1Sam 22:17; and David caused one of his attendants to slay the Amalekite who pretended to have slain Saul, 2Sam 1:15. Verse 21

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise, thou, and fall upon us - It was disgraceful to fall by the hands of a child; and the death occasioned by the blows of such a person must be much more lingering and tormenting. Some have even employed children to despatch captives. Civilis, a Roman knight, headed a revolt of the Gauls against Rome, in the year of the city 824. Of him Tacitus says, Hist. lib. iv., c. 61: Ferebatur parvulo filio quosdam captivorum sagittis jaculisque puerilibus figendos obtulisse: "He is said to have given to his little son some prisoners, as butts to be shot at with little darts and arrows." This was for their greater torment and dishonor; and to inure his child to blood! Could any thing like this have been the design of Gideon?

The ornaments that were on their camels' necks. - The heads, necks, bodies, and legs of camels, horses, and elephants, are highly ornamented in the eastern countries, and indeed this was common, from the remotest antiquity, in all countries. Virgil refers to it as a thing long before his time, and thus describes the horses given by King Latinus to the ambassadors of Aeneas. - Aen. lib. vii., ver. 274.

Haec effatus equos numero pater eligit omni.

Stabant tercentum nitidi in praesepibus altis:

Omnibus extemplo Teucris jubet ordine duci

Instratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis. Aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent: Tecti auro fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum. "He said, and order'd steeds to mount the band: In lofty stalls three hundred coursers stand; Their shining sides with crimson cover'd o'er; The sprightly steeds embroider'd trappings wore, With golden chains, refulgent to behold: Gold were their bridles, and they champ'd on gold."

Pitt.

Instead of ornaments, the Septuagint translate τους μηνισκους, the crescents or half-moons; and this is followed by the Syriac and Arabic. The worship of the moon was very ancient; and, with that of the sun, constituted the earliest idolatry of mankind. We learn from Jdg 8:24 that the Ishmaelites, or Arabs, as they are termed by the Targum, Syriac, and Arabic, had golden ear-rings, and probably a crescent in each; for it is well known that the Ishmaelites, and the Arabs who descended from them, were addicted very early to the worship of the moon; and so attached were they to this superstition, that although Mohammed destroyed the idolatrous use of the crescent, yet it was universally borne in their ensigns, and on the tops of their mosques, as well as in various ornaments.