Oreb and Zeeb עורב וזאב
princes of Midian; a rock and a winepress bear their names
Gideon sent messengers throughout Mount Ephraim: come down against Midian and take the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. The men of Ephraim held the fords—and there took two princes of Midian.
"And they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb." The places are named after the men who died on them; that is how names of whom nothing else is said remain in Scripture.
Afterwards these four names—Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah, Zalmunna—become a common measure. A psalm asks: "make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, and all their princes like Zebah and like Zalmunna." And Isaiah comforts Israel with the same day: "as the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb."
The window is the same as for Zebah and Zalmunna, with the same reservation.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Shoftim 7:24–25 — they were taken at the fords and killed—at the rock of Oreb and the winepress of Zeeb
- Yeshayahu 10:26 — "as the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb"
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Seder Olam Rabbah 12 — the seven years of Midian did not fall within Gideon's forty
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.