King living before Israel's Monarchy
Zebah was a Midianite king who, along with Zalmunna, was defeated and killed by Gideon during the time of the judges.
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Zebah was one of the two Midianite kings who led a vast army that invaded and oppressed Israel during the time of the judges. For seven years, the Midianites, along with the Amalekites and other eastern peoples, would come up against Israel, destroying crops and livestock, forcing many Israelites to seek shelter in caves. God raised up Gideon to deliver Israel from the Midianites. After a decisive victory, Zebah and Zalmunna fled with a remnant of their army, but Gideon pursued them across the Jordan River and overtook them at Karkor. The kings were captured and brought back to Israel, where they confessed to killing Gideon's brothers. As a result, Gideon executed them. The name Zebah is related to the Hebrew word for "sacrifice," while Zalmunna may contain a reference to a heathen deity. Their defeat is remembered as a demonstration of God's judgment and glory.
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Man-killer, or sacrifice, one of the two kings who led the vast host of the Midianites who invaded the land of Israel, and over whom Gideon gained a great and decisive victory (Judg. 8). Zebah and Zalmunna had succeeded in escaping across the Jordan with a remnant of the Midianite host, but were overtaken at Karkor, probably in the Hauran, and routed by Gideon. The kings were taken alive and brought back across the Jordan; and confessing that they had personally taken part in the slaughter of Gideon’s brothers, they were put to death (comp. 1 Sam. 12:11; Isa. 10:26; Ps. 83:11).
and Zalmun’na (deprived of protection), the two “kings” of Midian who commanded the great invasion of Palestine, and who finally fell by the hand of Gideon himself. (Judges 8:5-21; Psalms 83:11) (B.C. 1250.) While Oreb and Zeeb, two of the inferior leaders of the incursion, had been slain, with a vast number of their people, by the Ephraimites, at the central fords of the Jordan the two kings had succeeded in making their escape by a passage farther to the north (probably the ford near Bethshean), and thence by the Wady Yabis, through Gilead, to Kurkor, high up on the Hauran. Here they sere reposing their with 15,000 men, a mere remnant of their huge horde, when Gideon overtook them. The people fled in dismay, and Gideon captured the two kings and brought them to his native village, Ophrah where he slew them because they had killed his brothers.
ZE'BAH (sacrifice), a Midianite king captured and killed by Gideon. Jud 8:5-21; Ps 83:11.
ZE'BAH (sacrifice), a Midianite king captured and killed by Gideon. Jud 8:5-21; Ps 83:11.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
9 verses in 2 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H2078
So Gideon said to the men of Succoth, “Please give my troops some bread, for they are exhausted, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”
But the leaders of Succoth asked, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give bread to your army?”
“Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men—all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.
When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, Gideon pursued and captured these two kings of Midian, routing their entire army.
And Gideon went to the men of Succoth and said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give bread to your weary men?’”
Next, Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one resembling the son of a king.”
Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up and kill us yourself, for as the man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments from the necks of their camels.
Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.