ZEBAH AND ZALMUNNA Ze’ bə, Zăl’ mun ə (זֶ֣בַח, sacrifice, צַלְמֻנָּ֑ע, protection withheld; LXX Ζέβεε, Σαλμανά). Two Midianite kings whom Gideon pursued, conquered, and killed.
The story of this encounter is told in Judges 8:4-21, with reflection on the incident given by the psalmist (83:11). The bedouin Midianites from areas E of the Jordan had been plundering the Israelites and their crops with their camel raids (Judg 6:1-6), when the Lord raised up Gideon as a deliverer for Israel. Well known is the military blow which Gideon and his 300 men dealt the Midianite enemy (7:1-22). In the ensuing rout the Midianite princes, Oreb and Zeeb, were captured and killed by the Ephraimites (7:24, 25). Gideon, in his pursuit of the Midianites and their two kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, E across the Jordan River near the Jabbok (or Zerka) River, was refused help by the people of the E Manasseh areas, those of Succoth and Penuel. The two kings and their remnant army of 15,000 were resting at Karkor, while Gideon and his men pursued up the Jabbok River by the caravan route E of Nobah and Jogbehah (the latter possibly being the modern Jebeihat NW of Amman and about fifteen m. SE of Penuel, the place where Jacob wrestled with the angel, Gen 32:30). Then the Israelite leader, having conquered the enemy, took the two kings back with him by way of “the ascent of Heres” (Judg 8:13, the LXX also gives this: ἀπὸ̀ ἀναβάσεως ̔Αρες, “from the going up of Heres”) evidently a place not far from Succoth (8:11-14).
After punishing the people of Succoth and Penuel for failing to help him (8:14-17), Gideon put Zebah and Zalmunna to death on the principle of blood revenge because they had killed his own brothers at Tabor (either the mount, or possibly a city). In the process he removed the crescent-shaped jewelry of silver or gold counted as important (see Isa 3:18) and possibly indicative of royalty, worn by the camels and the two kings (Judg 8:18-21).
Compare the statement of Philostratus (Bk. 2, c. 1) that Apollonius of Tyana used a Pers. camel with a gold ornament on its face as its symbol of royal ownership.
Psalm 83:11 indicates that both sets of officials, Oreb and Zeeb (Judg 7:25; 8:3) and Zebah and Zalmunna, were important in the conquest of Midian, the former pair possibly being subordinate chieftains (7:25, Heb. שַׂר, H8569, chief, captain; LXX, ἄρχοντες, rulers) to the two kings (Judg 8:12, Heb. מֶ֫לֶכְ֒, H4889, king; LXX βασιλεύς, G995, king).
The term Zebah seems to be connected with the concept of “sacrifice” as the Heb. root shows. The name Zalmunna is composed of two elements: Heb. צֶ֫לֶמ֒, H7512, image; and מָנַע, H4979, to withhold, possibly suggesting that this name indicated that some heathen deity or image held back its protective power. Further support for this suggestion that the term Zalmunna contains a reference to a heathen deity is seen in the comparison that has been made between it and the name of a priest, צלמשׁזב, meaning “(the god) ṩalm has delivered” found in a N Arabian inscr. from Teima (prob. 5th cent. b.c.).
Bibliography G. A. Cooke, A Textbook of North Semitic Inscriptions (1903), 195-199; C. F. Keil, F. Delitzsch, Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1950), 350-355.