Judges 8:18

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