Judges 8:15

15 Then he went to the men of Succoth and said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. You taunted me about them, saying, 'Are[a] Zebah and Zalmunna now in your power that we should give bread to your exhausted men?' "

Judges 8:15 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 8:15

And he came unto the men of Succoth
Entered the city, and bespoke the inhabitants of it in the following manner:

and said, behold, Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom ye did upbraid me;
as not in his hands, and never would be, he being with his three hundred men an unequal match to them with 15,000; but he had taken them, and brought them with him, and perhaps spared them for this very reason, to let them see they were in his hands, and now calls upon them to behold them with their own eyes, concerning whom they had flouted and jeered him:

saying, are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thy hand, that we
should give bread unto thy men that are weary?
he delivers their own express words, which he had carefully observed and laid up in his memory, for their greater conviction and confusion; only adds the character of his men, that they were "weary", to expose their vile ingratitude the more, that they should refuse them a few loaves of bread, who were faint and weary in the service of them.

Judges 8:15 In-Context

13 Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres.
14 He captured a youth from the men of Succoth and interrogated him. The youth wrote down for him the [names of the] 77 princes and elders of Succoth.
15 Then he went to the men of Succoth and said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. You taunted me about them, saying, 'Are Zebah and Zalmunna now in your power that we should give bread to your exhausted men?' "
16 So he took the elders of the city, as well as some thorns and briers from the wilderness, and he disciplined the men of Succoth with them.
17 He also tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

Footnotes 1

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