And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Beth-barah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Beth-barah and Jordan.
Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim. The Ephraimites lay on the south, and could render seasonable aid. A message, therefore, was sent to inform the people of that large district of the occurrences, and to rouse them to engage in helping forward the common cause of their country's deliverance.
Come ... take before them the waters unto Beth-barah - (see the note at Judges 3:28.) These were the northern fords of the Jordan, to the eastnortheast of Wady Maleh. 'One of the main entrances into western Palestine from the Jordan has always been up the valley of Jezreel (now Zerin), at the foot of which are the fords of Beth-barah' (cf. John 1:28: Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' p. 196; Reland's 'Palaestina,' 2:, 626).
The men of Ephraim gathered themselves together ... unto Beth-harah. A new conflict ensued, in which two secondary chiefs were seized, and slain on the spots where they were respectively taken. The spots were named after these chiefs, Oreb, 'the Raven,' and Zeeb, 'the Wolf'-appropriate designations of Arab leaders. Those titles are similar to 'the Black Eagle' and 'the Great Serpent' of the Red Indians, and to Hengist and Horsa, the 'Mare' and the 'Stallion' of the Saxons.