Judges 8:18-21

The execution of the Midianite kings 8:18-21

Gideon took his prisoners back to Ophrah where the following events evidently took place. The Midianite kings had apparently executed Gideon’s brothers sometime before the recent battle, perhaps during one of the Midianites’ previous raids. It seems that Gideon was unable to avenge his brothers’ deaths then due, most likely, to the Midianites’ superiority. Now Gideon had the upper hand.

Gideon appears to have been an imposing person physically. The Midianite kings said his brothers resembled him and looked like the sons of a king, perhaps poised and aristocratic in bearing. Another explanation is that the enemy kings hoped to gain Gideon’s favor by flattery, but this seems unlikely since Gideon recognized his brothers by their description (Judges 8:19). Gideon probably would not have applied the lex talionis as he did here if his brothers had died in battle. The Midianite kings had evidently murdered them.

It was a great disgrace to die at the hand of a woman or a youth in the ancient Near East. This implied that the person killed could not overcome his slayer. Gideon’s intent was to punish the kings with humiliation as well as death for their treatment of his brothers (Judges 8:20). However, Gideon’s young son was not ready for this adult work, so Gideon killed them himself (Judges 8:21). The crescent-shaped ornaments that Gideon took from the kings’ camels (Judges 8:21) were presumably gold and silver. The Arabians commonly wore these around their necks and used them to decorate their camels. These particular ornaments would have been very valuable since they belonged to kings.

"Such crescents are mentioned in the Bible only in this chapter and Isaiah 3:18, but crescent-moon-shaped ornaments have been found at many excavated sites in Palestine. They are widely used by Arab peoples up to the present day." [Note: Cundall and Morris, p. 120.]

With the execution of Zebah and Zalmunna and the destruction of their army, Midian’s domination of Israel ended. Though the seven years of this oppression were not as long as some of Israel’s other periods of discipline, this appears to have been an unusually oppressive subjugation.