Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise you, and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength. Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels' necks.
Gideon appears to have been an imposing person physically. The Midianite kings said his brothers resembled him and looked like the sons of a king, perhaps poised and aristocratic in bearing. Another explanation is that the enemy kings hoped to gain Gideon’s favor by flattery, but this seems unlikely since Gideon recognized his brothers by their description (Judges 8:19). Gideon probably would not have applied the lex talionis as he did here if his brothers had died in battle. The Midianite kings had evidently murdered them.