Giudici 8:21

21 E Zeba, e Salmunna, dissero: Levati su tu, e avventati sopra noi; perciocchè quale è l’uomo tale è la sua forza. Gedeone adunque si levò, e uccise Zeba, e Salmunna, e prese le borchie che i lor cammelli aveano al collo.

Giudici 8:21 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 8:21

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, rise thou and fall upon us
Since they must die, they chose rather to die by the hand of so great a man and valiant a commander as Gideon, which was more honourable than to die by the hand of a youth:

for as the man is, so is his strength;
signifying, that as he was a stout able man, he had strength sufficient to dispatch them at once, which his son had not, and therefore they must have died a lingering and painful death: wherefore as they consulted their honour, so their ease, in desiring to die by the hand of Gideon:

and Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna;
nor was it unusual in those early times for great personages, as judges and generals, to be executioners of others, as were Samuel and Benaiah, ( 1 Samuel 15:33 ) ( 1 Kings 2:25 1 Kings 2:34 )

and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks;
the Targum calls them chains, as in ( Judges 8:26 ) no doubt of gold; so the horses of King Latinus ^F2 had golden poitrels or collars hanging down their breasts. They were, according to Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Gersom, in the form of the moon; see ( Isaiah 3:18 ) some have thought that these were worn in honour of Astarte, or the moon, the goddess of the Phoenicians, from whom these people had borrowed that idolatry.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Virg. Aeneid. l. 7. v. 278.

Giudici 8:21 In-Context

19 Ed egli disse loro: Essi erano miei fratelli, figliuoli di mia madre; come il Signore vive, se voi aveste loro salvata la vita, io non vi ucciderei.

20 Poi disse a Ieter, suo primogenito: Levati, uccidili. Ma il fanciullo non trasse fuori la sua spada; perciocchè avea paura; conciossiachè egli fosse ancor giovanetto.

21 E Zeba, e Salmunna, dissero: Levati su tu, e avventati sopra noi; perciocchè quale è l’uomo tale è la sua forza. Gedeone adunque si levò, e uccise Zeba, e Salmunna, e prese le borchie che i lor cammelli aveano al collo.

22 E gl’Israeliti dissero a Gedeone: Signoreggia sopra noi, tu, e il tuo figliuolo, e il figliuolo del tuo figliuolo; conciossiachè tu ci abbi salvati dalla mano de’ Madianiti.

23 Ma Gedeone disse loro: Nè io, nè il mio figliuolo, signoreggeremo sopra voi; il Signore signoreggerà sopra voi.