Richtere 8:21

21 Toen zeiden Zebah en Tsalmuna: Sta gij op, en val op ons aan, want naar dat de man is, zo is zijn macht. Zo stond Gideon op, en doodde Zebah en Tsalmuna, en nam de maantjes, die aan de halzen hunner kemelen waren.

Richtere 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.

Richtere 8:21 In-Context

19 Toen zeide hij: Het waren mijn broeders, zonen mijner moeder; zo waarlijk als de HEERE leeft, zo gij hen hadt laten leven, ik zou ulieden niet doden!

20 En hij zeide tot Jether, zijn eerstgeborene: Sta op, dood hen; maar de jongeling trok zijn zwaard niet uit, want hij vreesde, dewijl hij nog een jongeling was.

21 Toen zeiden Zebah en Tsalmuna: Sta gij op, en val op ons aan, want naar dat de man is, zo is zijn macht. Zo stond Gideon op, en doodde Zebah en Tsalmuna, en nam de maantjes, die aan de halzen hunner kemelen waren.

22 Toen zeiden de mannen van Israel tot Gideon: Heers over ons, zo gij als uw zoon en uws zoons zoon, dewijl gij ons van der Midianieten hand verlost hebt.

23 Maar Gideon zeide tot hen: Ik zal over u niet heersen; ook zal mijn zoon over u niet heersen; de HEERE zal over u heersen.