Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 8:3

"God hath delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that." — Judges 8:3 (ASV)

Then their anger was abated towards him. —The soft answer turned away wrath (Proverbs 15:1). The word for anger is mach, “wind,” or “spirit”—anger expressed by fierce breathing through the nostrils, the blast of the terrible ones (Isaiah 25:4). (Compare to Ecclesiastes 10:4: If the spirit (ruach) of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.) “Gideon’s good words were as victorious as his sword.”—Bp. Hall.