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•ZEBAH man-killer, or sacrifice, one of the two kings who led the vast host of the Midianites who invaded the land of Israel, and over whom Gideon gained a great and decisive victory (Judges 8). Zebah and Zalmunna had succeeded in escaping across the Jordan with a remnant of the Midianite host, but were overtaken at Karkor, probably in the Hauran, and routed by Gideon. The kings were taken alive and brought back across the Jordan; and confessing that they had personally taken part in the slaughter of Gideon’s brothers, they were put to death (comp. 1 Samuel 12:11; Isaiah 10:26; Psalm 83:11).
•ZEBAIM (Ezra 2:57; Nehemiah 7:59). “Pochereth of Zebaim” should be read as in the Revised Version, “Pochereth-hazzebaim” (“snaring the antelopes”), probably the name of some hunter.
•ZEBEDEE a Galilean fisherman, the husband of Salome (q.v.), and the father of James and John, two of our Lord’s disciples (Matthew 4:21; 27:56; Mark 15:40). He seems to have been a man of some position in Capernaum, for he had two boats (Luke 5:4) and “hired servants” (Mark 1:20) of his own. No mention is made of him after the call of his two sons by Jesus.
•ZEBOIM gazelles or roes. (1.) One of the “five cities of the plain” of Sodom, generally coupled with Admah (Genesis 10:19; 14:2; Deuteronomy 29:23; Hos. 11:8). It had a king of its own (Shemeber), and was therefore a place of some importance. It was destroyed along with the other cities of the plain.
(2.) A valley or rugged glen somewhere near Gibeah in Benjamin (1 Samuel 13:18). It was probably the ravine now bearing the name Wady Shakh-ed-Dub’a, or “ravine of the hyena,” north of Jericho.
(3.) A place mentioned only in Nehemiah 11:34, inhabited by the Benjamites after the Captivity.