Teks -- Judges 8:21 (NET)

8:21 Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Come on, you strike us, for a man is judged by his strength.” So Gideon killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent-shaped ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Jdg 8:21 - 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.

Clarke: Jdg 8:21 - Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise, thou, and fall upon us

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

Clarke: Jdg 8:21 - The ornaments that were on their camels’ necks.

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 duc

Instratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis. Aure

pectoribus demissa monilia pendent: Tecti aur

fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum

"He said, and order’ d steeds to mount the band: I

lofty stalls three hundred coursers stand; Thei

shining sides with crimson cover’ d o’ er; Th

sprightly steeds embroider’ d trappings wore, Wit

golden chains, refulgent to behold: Gold were thei

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 Jdg 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.

TSK: Jdg 8:21 - Rise thou // slew // ornaments

Rise thou : It was disgraceful to fall by the hands of a child; and death by the blows of such a person must be much more lingering and tormenting. Some have employed children to dispatch captives. Jdg 9:54; 1Sa 31:3, 1Sa 31:5; Rev 9:6

slew : Psa 83:1

ornaments : or, ornaments like the moon, Isa 3:18

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Jdg 8:21 - As the man is, so is his strength

As the man is, so is his strength: thou excellest him, as in age and stature, so in strength; and it is more honourable, as well as easy, to dig by the hands of a valiant man.

Haydock: Jdg 8:21 - Age // Ornaments

Age. They beg that they may die in a more speedy and noble manner. Tacitus (Hist. iv.) observes, "it was reported that Civilis exposed some of the Roman captives to his little son, in order that he might fix his arrows and javelins in their bodies." ---

Ornaments. Most interpreters understand "crescents." The veneration of the Arabs for the moon, the celestial Venus, or Alilat, is well known. The Turks still make use of this sign, as Christians employ the cross on their standards, temples, &c. Men and women anciently wore on their necks or forehead ornaments of the same nature, as these camels did, Isaias iii. 18. Latinus adorned his horses in the most splendid manner. Virgil, Æneid vii: Aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent. Caligula decorated with extravagance his famous horse Incitatus, on which he designed to confer the consulate. (Suetonius) ---

In Egypt the camels are sometimes painted yellow, and hung with a variety of little bells. (Vaneb.)

Gill: Jdg 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

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, 1Sa 15:33.

and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks; the Targum calls them chains, as in Jdg 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 Isa 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.