The verb in use here is the root from which is derived the adjective in Judges 7:3, trembling,
used to describe twenty-two thousand of Gideon’s frightened soldiers assembled at the spring of Harod (trembling
). The repetition of the root draws attention to the role reversal that characterizes the story. Before the battle Israel’s army was trembling, but in the end the Midianites were overcome with terror.
1
As the NIV renders this verb, Gideon routed
them. He thereby ended the Midianite threat for good.
12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic.