OREB and ZEEB ôr’ əb and ze’ əb (עﯴרֵב, עﯴרֵ֤ב, and זְאֵב׃֙; raven and wolf). Two Midianite leaders active in battle against Gideon and killed by Ephraimites (Judg 7:25; 8:3). The main battle had occurred in the valley of Jezreel, between ’Ain Harod and the Hill of Moreh (7:1), where Gideon’s valiant 300 routed 135,000 Midianites. Gideon had quickly sent messengers to the Ephraimites to cut off the retreat of the foe, who likely had to move slowly with flocks and herds, by taking “the waters...as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan” (7:24, 25). The Ephraimites responded, and Oreb was slain at “the rock of Oreb” and Zeeb at “the wine press of Zeeb” (both places likely named as a result of this occasion). These two places are unknown but prob. were located W of the Jordan, since Ephraim’s task was to keep the enemy from crossing. If so, Gideon had crossed already, for the heads of both slain leaders were brought to him “beyond the Jordan.” Judges 8:4 can be made to agree with this by tr. “And Gideon had come to the Jordan,” etc. The two places may have been as far S as Abel-meholah, commonly identified with Abu Sifri, about halfway between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. Psalm 83:11 and Isaiah 10:26 suggest that a major slaughter of Midianites took place, for each reference uses the occasion as illustrative of a time of great destruction.

Bibliography E. G. Kraeling, Bible Atlas (1956), 155-157; J. Simons, GTT (1959), 293, 294; C. F. Pfeiffer, Baker’s Bible Atlas (1961), 103.