And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb,.... The one signifies a "raven", and the other a "wolf"; which were either nicknames given them because of their voraciousness and cruelty, or which they took themselves, or their ancestors before them, to make themselves terrible to others; so the Romans had the families of the Corvini, &c.
and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb; perhaps they found him in a cave of the rock, and dragging him out slew him, from whence the rock afterwards had its name. So we read of the rock Corax in Homer , which was in Ithaca, and another high mountain of the same name in Aetolia, mentioned by Livy and which signifies the same as Oreb.
This is a different rock or mountain from Horeb, the same with Sinai, from whence the law was given; which always ought to be written with an "H" or "Ch", to distinguish it from this; though that is written Oreb by Lactantius , and so by Milton , contrary to the propriety of the language:and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb; the Targum is, the plain of Zeeb, which, as Kimchi and Ben Gersom suppose, was in the form of a winepress, having high lips or hills around it, and which afterwards took its name from this prince being slain in it:and pursued Midian; the rest of the Midianites, even beyond Jordan, those that got over it:and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan; that is, when he had passed over it the next morning, as Jarchi remarks; for after this we read of Gideon's going over Jordan, Jud 8:4 unless this is said by way of anticipation; though the phrase will bear to be rendered, "on this side Jordan", for it signifies both.
It seems they cut off the heads of those two princes, and presented them to Gideon, as it has been usual to bring the heads of enemies to kings and conquerors; see 1Sa 17:54. Odyss. 13. "prope finem".
Hist. l. 36. c. 30. De vera Sap. l. 4. c. 17. Paradise Lost, l. 1. ver. 7.