SEV Biblia, Chapter 8:18
¶ Luego dijo a Zeba y a Zalmuna: ¿Qué manera de hombres tenían aquellos que matasteis en Tabor? Y ellos respondieron: Como tú, tales eran aquellos ni más ni menos, que parecían hijos de rey.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Judges 8:18
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, ver. 21, were some of the spoils of his slaughtered brethren.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 18. Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna , etc.] 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 ? Mount Tabor, to which these men had betaken and hid themselves, in some caves and dens there: (see Judges 6:2) and these kings some little time before the battle had taken them, and slew them, of which it seems Gideon had notice; and some of his brethren being not to be found, he suspected they were the persons, and therefore asked this question: and they answered, as thou art, so were they ; very much like him in countenance and stature, stout, able bodied men, of a graceful and majestic appearance. Abarbinel takes it to be a curse on Gideon, be thou, or thou shalt be, as they are; as they died by the hand of the Midianites, so shalt thou; but the former sense seems best, and agrees with what follows: each one resembled the children of a king ; being brought up in a delicate manner, as these persons seemed to have been: according to Jarchi and Kimchi, the sense is, they were like him, and had all one and the same form and lovely aspect, resembling kings’ children; but according to Ben Gersom they were in general very much like Gideon, and one of them was like his children, who were then present, particularly his eldest son, as appears from ( Judges 8:20). It is said in the Misnah all the Israelites are the children of kings.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 18-21 - The kings of Midian must be reckoned with. As they confessed themselve guilty of murder, Gideon acted as the avenger of blood, being the nex of kin to the persons slain. Little did they think to have heard of this so long after; but murder seldom goes unpunished in this life Sins long forgotten by man, must be accounted for to God. What poor consolation in death from the hope of suffering less pain, and of dyin with less disgrace than some others! yet many are more anxious on thes accounts, than concerning the future judgment, and what will follow.
Original Hebrew
ויאמר 559 אל 413 זבח 2078 ואל 413 צלמנע 6759 איפה 375 האנשׁים 376 אשׁר 834 הרגתם 2026 בתבור 8396 ויאמרו 559 כמוך 3644 כמוהם 3644 אחד 259 כתאר 8389 בני 1121 המלך׃ 4428
