Zebah and Zalmunna

ze'-ba (zebhach, "victim"), zal-mun'-a (tsalmunna`, "protection refused"): Two Midianite kings or chiefs whom Gideon slew (Jg 8:4-21; Ps 83:11 (Hebrew text, verse 12)). The name zebhach (Zebee) is very much like that of ze'ebh (Zeb, "Zeeb" in the Septuagint). Moore (Judgess, 220) says that tsalmunna` is probably "a genuine Midianite name"; Noldeke conjectured that it contains that of a deity (ts(a)lm), and a compound form tslmshzbh, is found in an inscription from Teima, a place East of the Midianite capital (Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, II, cxiii f).

The narrative of Jg 8:4-21 is not to be connected with that of Jg 8:1-3. Budde (Kurzer Hand-Comm. z. Altes Testament, XXII) would join Jg 8:4 to Jg 6:34; Moore (ICC) following Budde's earlier work (1890) would connect it with a part of 7:22b, describing the direction of the flight, while Nowack (Hand-Komm.) regards the battle of 8:11 as the same as that of 7:11 if; he then takes the latter part of 8:11 to refer to the place of the camp at night. There are many difficulties in forming a natural connection for the verses. It may be noted that in 8:18 f Gideon is not "the least in my father's house," as he represents himself to be in 6:15.

The whole section tells of a daring raid made by Gideon upon the Midianites. Some of his own kin had been slain by Midianite hordes at Ophrah (Jg 8:18 f), and, stirred by this, Gideon went in hot pursuit with 300 men (Jg 8:4). He requested provisions for his men from the people of Succoth and Penuel, but was refused this. He then went on and caught the Midianites unawares at Karkor (Jg 8:10) and captured their two chiefs. He then had his revenge on the two towns, and returned probably to his home with the two notable prisoners. These he determined to slay to avenge the death of his own kinsmen, and called upon his eldest son to perform this solemn public duty that he owed to the dead. His son, apparently only a boy, hesitated, and he did the deed himself. W. R. Smith (Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, 2nd edition, 417, note) compares with this call to Gideon's son the choice of young men or lads as sacrificers in Ex 24:5, and says that the Saracens also charged lads with the execution of their captives.

The narrative reminds one of David's romantic life in 1Sa 25:1-44; 27:1-12; 30:1-31. It is throughout a characteristic picture of the life of the early Hebrews in Palestine, for whom it was a sacred duty to avenge the dead. It affords a splendid illustration of what is meant by the spirit of Yahweh coming upon, or rather "clothing itself with" (Revised Version margin) Gideon (Jg 6:34); compare also Saul's call to action (1Sa 11:1-11), and also Jg 19:1-30 f.

David Francis Roberts