The threat calls to mind the first scene in which Gideon appeared to the reader in Judges 6:11, His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress.
The similarity between the agricultural activities indicates the reversal that has occurred in Gideon’s personality. In the context of the same scene at the beginning of the Gideon account, he appears as a man deeply concerned by his people’s plight. Tearing of the flesh of the men with the briers and thorns of the wilderness is an injury to the people for the benefit of his honour.
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7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”