15 He came to the men of Succoth, and said, "See Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?'"
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And he came unto the men of Succoth,.... Entered the city, and bespoke the inhabitants of it in the following manner:
and said, behold, Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom ye did upbraid me; as not in his hands, and never would be, he being with his three hundred men an unequal match to them with 15,000; but he had taken them, and brought them with him, and perhaps spared them for this very reason, to let them see they were in his hands, and now calls upon them to behold them with their own eyes, concerning whom they had flouted and jeered him:
saying, are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thy hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary? he delivers their own express words, which he had carefully observed and laid up in his memory, for their greater conviction and confusion; only adds the character of his men, that they were "weary", to expose their vile ingratitude the more, that they should refuse them a few loaves of bread, who were faint and weary in the service of them.
*More commentary available at chapter level.