Bible Strands
Judges 8:10
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men—all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the final location and remaining strength of the enemy commanders Zebah and Zalmunna at the end of Gideon’s pursuit, noting the scale of casualties already inflicted on the eastern coalition.
The words — כַּ/חֲמֵ֤שֶׁת עָשָׂר֙ אֶ֔לֶף (ka./cha./Me.shet 'a./Sar 'E.lef) = about/ fif-teen/ thousand, which the text uses to quantify the survivors. This precise count stands in direct contrast to the initial force size before the campaign.
The thread — The passage recalls the eastern armies swarming like locusts in Judges 7:12 and places their numbers alongside the large troop mobilizations recorded in Judges 20:2 and Judges 20:15.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to track military attrition across a campaign, demonstrating that the remaining force of Zebah and Zalmunna represents the depleted remnant of a previously vast coalition.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Judges 7:12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore.
- Judges 20:2 The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of God’s people: 400,000 men on foot, armed with swords.
- Judges 20:15 On that day the Benjamites mobilized 26,000 swordsmen from their cities, in addition to the 700 select men of Gibeah.
- Judges 20:17 The Israelites, apart from Benjamin, mobilized 400,000 swordsmen, each one an experienced warrior.
- Judges 20:25 That same day the Benjamites came out against them from Gibeah and cut down another 18,000 Israelites, all of them armed with swords.
- Judges 20:35 The LORD defeated Benjamin in the presence of Israel, and on that day the Israelites slaughtered 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords.
- Judges 20:46 That day 25,000 Benjamite swordsmen fell, all men of valor.
- 2 Kings 3:26 When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not prevail.
- Isaiah 9:4 For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.
- Judges 6:5 For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.