Charles Ellicott Commentary 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 8:18 (ASV)

Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna. —They had been kept alive in order to answer the cowardly taunt of the elders of Succoth. There is nothing to show whether they were put to death at Succoth, as Josephus says, or taken to Ophrah (Antt. iv. 7, § 5). Perhaps Gideon reserved their death for the place where he had once lived with his brothers, whom they had slain.

What kind of men were they. —Literally, where (are) the men? Evidently this dialogue is related only in a shortened form, and Gideon’s inquiry is rather a taunt or an expression of grief (Job 17:15), to show them that he now meant to act as the goel, or blood-avenger of his brothers. Until this time these great chiefs seem to have been led in triumph on their camels, in all their splendid attire and golden ornaments; and they may have thought, with Agag, that the bitterness of death had passed.

Whom you slew at Tabor? —We are left completely in the dark as to the circumstances of this battle, or massacre. In the complete uncertainty as to all the details of the chronology, it is not impossible that Gideon’s brothers—at least three or four in number—may have perished in Barak’s “battle of Mount Tabor,” or in some early struggle of this Midianite invasion, or in the first night battle (Judges 7:22).

As you ... so they. —A similar phrase occurs in 1 Kings 22:4.

Resembled the children of a king. —We learn from this reference that Gideon added to his other gifts that tall, commanding presence which always carried weight in early days (1 Samuel 10:24; 1 Samuel 16:6–7). In Iliad, iii. 170, Priam says: “One so fair I never saw with my eyes, nor so stately, for he is like a king” (βασιλῆἰ γἀρ άνδρὶ ἔоικεν).