Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks.

And Zebee and Salmana said: Do thou rise, and run upon us: because the strength of a man is according to his age: Gedeon rose up and slew Zebee and Salmana: and he took the ornaments and bosses, with which the necks of the camels of kings are wont to be adorned.

Then Zebah and Zalmun'na said, |Rise yourself, and fall upon us; for as the man is, so is his strength.| And Gideon arose and slew Zebah and Zalmun'na; and he took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels.

And Zebah saith, also Zalmunna, 'Rise thou, and fall upon us; for as the man, his might;' and Gideon riseth, and slayeth Zebah and Zalmunna, and taketh their round ornaments which are on the necks of their camels.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Up! Put an end to us yourself: for you have a man's strength. Then Gideon got up and put Zebah and Zalmunna to death and took the ornaments which were on their camels' necks.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, 'Rise up yourself, and kill us, for a man is judged by his strength.' Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments that were on their camels' necks.

And Zebah and Zalmunna said: "You should rise up and rush against us. For the strength of a man is in accord with his age." Gideon rose up, and he killed Zebah and Zalmunna. And he took the ornaments and studs, with which the necks of the royal camels are usually adorned.

The ornaments - See marg. and compare Isaiah 3:18. The custom of adorning the necks of their camels with gold chains and ornaments prevailed among the Arabs so late as the time of Mahomet.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise, thou, and fall upon us - It was disgraceful to fall by the hands of a child; and the death occasioned by the blows of such a person must be much more lingering and tormenting. Some have even employed children to despatch captives. Civilis, a Roman knight, headed a revolt of the Gauls against Rome, in the year of the city 824. Of him Tacitus says, Hist. lib. iv., c. 61: Ferebatur parvulo filio quosdam captivorum sagittis jaculisque puerilibus figendos obtulisse: "He is said to have given to his little son some prisoners, as butts to be shot at with little darts and arrows." This was for their greater torment and dishonor; and to inure his child to blood! Could any thing like this have been the design of Gideon?
The ornaments that were on their camels' necks. - The heads, necks, bodies, and legs of camels, horses, and elephants, are highly ornamented in the eastern countries, and indeed this was common, from the remotest antiquity, in all countries. Virgil refers to it as a thing long before his time, and thus describes the horses given by King Latinus to the ambassadors of Aeneas. - Aen. lib. vii., ver. 274.
Haec effatus equos numero pater eligit omni.
Stabant tercentum nitidi in praesepibus altis:
Omnibus extemplo Teucris jubet ordine duci
Instratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis. Aurea
pectoribus demissa monilia pendent: Tecti auro
fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum.
"He said, and order'd steeds to mount the band: In
lofty stalls three hundred coursers stand; Their
shining sides with crimson cover'd o'er; The
sprightly steeds embroider'd trappings wore, With
golden chains, refulgent to behold: Gold were their
bridles, and they champ'd on gold."
Pitt.
Instead of ornaments, the Septuagint translate τους μηνισκους, the crescents or half-moons; and this is followed by the Syriac and Arabic. The worship of the moon was very ancient; and, with that of the sun, constituted the earliest idolatry of mankind. We learn from Judges 8:24 that the Ishmaelites, or Arabs, as they are termed by the Targum, Syriac, and Arabic, had golden ear-rings, and probably a crescent in each; for it is well known that the Ishmaelites, and the Arabs who descended from them, were addicted very early to the worship of the moon; and so attached were they to this superstition, that although Mohammed destroyed the idolatrous use of the crescent, yet it was universally borne in their ensigns, and on the tops of their mosques, as well as in various ornaments.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall upon us: for (l) as the man [is, so is] his strength. And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that [were] on their camels' necks.
(l) Meaning, that they would be freed from their pain at once, or else have a valiant man put them to death.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, rise thou and fall upon us,.... Since they must die, they chose rather to die by the hand of so great a man and valiant a commander as Gideon, which was more honourable than to die by the hand of a youth:
for as the man is, so is his strength; signifying, that as he was a stout able man, he had strength sufficient to dispatch them at once, which his son had not, and therefore they must have died a lingering and painful death: wherefore as they consulted their honour, so their ease, in desiring to die by the hand of Gideon:
and Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna; nor was it unusual in those early times for great personages, as judges and generals, to be executioners of others, as were Samuel and Benaiah, 1-Samuel 15:33.
and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks; the Targum calls them chains, as in Judges 8:26 no doubt of gold; so the horses of King Latinus (b) had golden poitrels or collars hanging down their breasts. They were, according to Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Gersom, in the form of the moon; see Isaiah 3:18 some have thought that these were worn in honour of Astarte, or the moon, the goddess of the Phoenicians, from whom these people had borrowed that idolatry.
(b) Virg. Aeneid. l. 7. v. 278.

So is his strength - Thou excellest him, as in age and stature, so in strength; and it is more honourable to die by the hands of a valiant man.