Zebah
The name Zebah means “victim; sacrifice.” Zebah is mentioned in 9 verses of the Bible, first in Judges 8:5.
Who was Zebah?
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).
Biography adapted from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), public domain, linked via Theographic Bible Metadata.
Key verses about Zebah
- Judges 8:5
And he said unto the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.
- Judges 8:6
And the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army?
- Judges 8:10
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east: for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword.
- Judges 8:18
Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.
- Judges 8:21
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.
- Psalms 83:11
Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna: