Bible Dictionary

Zebah

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Zebah was one of the two kings of Midian who invaded Israel. Gideon captured and executed him after defeating the Midianite forces.

Definition

Zebah was one of the two kings of Midian who led a major invasion of Israel. He escaped with Zalmunna and part of the Midianite force but was captured and killed by Gideon.

Biblical Usage

After Gideon defeated the Midianites, he pursued Zebah and Zalmunna across the Jordan to Karkor. Gideon executed them because they had personally taken part in killing his brothers.

Historical Background

The two kings fled with about fifteen thousand men, a remnant of the invading host. They were overtaken in the region identified with Karkor, probably in the Hauran, and brought back to Ophrah.

Scripture References

Related Figures

Historical Bible Dictionaries

Easton's Bible Dictionary
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).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
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.
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