MIDIAN, MIDIANITES mĭd’ ĭ ăn, īts (מִדְיָ֑ן, מִדְיָנִ֜ים, LXX Μαδιάμ, Μαδιηνᾶιοι). The name of the land and the people who were generally E and SE of Canaan.
1. The Biblical record. The name of the country and the people who comprised it come from a forefather named Midian. After Sarah and Hagar, Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah (Gen 25:1f.; 1 Chron 1:32). The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah (Gen 25:4, 1 Chron 1:33). Abraham sent all his concubines’ sons away, “eastward to the east country” (Gen 25:6).
Genesis 36:35 refers to an otherwise unknown battle in the country of Moab at which one Hadad was the hero. The traders who took Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites were Midianites (37:28, cf. v. 36).
The land of Midian played an important part in the life of Moses. Moses fled there from Pharaoh (Exod 2:15). He met and eventually was employed by Reuel (or Jethro), a priest of Midian who had seven daughters (2:16-22). One of these Midianite girls, Zipporah, became his wife. It was while Moses was watching Jethro’s flocks that he came to Horeb, the mountain of God (3:1). The location of Horeb (or Sinai) and Midian is a problem with many facets.
Mention of Midian does not occur again until the Exodus when Israel passed through Moab, which bordered on Midian. To protect themselves the elders of Moab and Midian hired Balaam to pronounce a curse on Israel (Num 22:4ff.).
Relations between Israel and Midian further deteriorated after a Heb. man married a Midianite woman (25:6). This caused a plague which ceased only when the offenders were killed. The summary comment of Moses on Midian was, “They have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague on account of Peor” (25:18). The Lord further cursed Midian (ch. 31). Even though five chs. of genealogy and legislation intervene between this and the previous episode, it seems to come as a result of that international marriage. Israel was victorious in the battle that God prompted them to begin. They slew every male and five Midianite kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba (31:7f.). They also slew Balaam. The people spared all the women, but Moses ordered that only the unmarried of them should live (31:14-18).
The Lord raised up Gideon the judge in order to overthrow the Midianite yoke which had been on Israel for seven years (Judg 6:1). The Midianites clearly were waging an offensive war, for they had moved across to the W bank of the Jordan and were encamped in the Valley of Jezreel (6:33). It was in that valley that the Lord routed the enemy with Gideon and one hundred torchbearing trumpeters (7:19ff.). Two of the Midianite princes, Zebah and Zalmunna, played a major role in the sequel to the battle in Judges 8. Oreb and Zeeb had been captured and killed, but these other two escaped to Trans-jordan. Gideon received no support nor encouragement from the towns of Succoth or Penuel and so cursed and punished them when he finally returned triumphantly (8:16f.). This victory over the Midianites at Jezreel was memorialized by the prophet Isaiah. “And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a scourge, as when he smote Midian at the rock of Oreb...” (Isa 10:26; cf. 9:4, Ps 83:9, Hab 3:7).
2. The land of Midian. The boundaries of the land of Midian are very indefinite. The suggestion of Genesis 25:6 that it was simply E is not very specific. It could mean anything or everything all the way from Mt. Hermon to the Euphrates and S to the Arabian peninsula, and perhaps include the Sinai peninsula. All of this is rugged desert country. Most scholars limit the term “Midian” to that part of Arabia E of the Gulf of Aqabah. The ancient geographer Ptolemy knew of a “Modiana” and a “Madiana” (VI. 7, 27). Madiana is prob. the Madiam mentioned by Eusebius (Onamastica 136:31). It may be the modern el-Bed twenty-six m. E of the Gulf of Aqabah. The Madian mentioned by Josephus was on the coast of the Red Sea, i.e., the Gulf of Aqabah (Antiq. II. xi. 1).
3. The people of Midian. Although the Midianites were descendants of Abraham through his wife Keturah, they never were considered part of the covenant people of God. The hospitality of Jethro to Moses is commendable, but beyond that the Midianites were a people hostile to Israel.
Being desert people, their existence was nomadic. When some of them picked up Joseph it was typical of their way of life—trading, traveling, and troubling others. Most Bedouin know no boundaries and apparently these Midianites knew none either. They were as far N as Moab according to Genesis 36:35. If Horeb is in Sinai, then they were SW of Elath (Num 10:29). They were “beyond the Jordan” in the vicinity of the plains of Moab in Numbers 25 and 31. They were even in the area S of Galilee in Cis-Jordan when Gideon routed them (Judg 6-8).
Twice in the Book of Judges Moses’ father-in-law is called a Kenite (1:16; 4:11). Viewpoints differ as to the relationship between Midianites and Kenites. Some say they are synonymous terms—others that Kenites are a part or a clan of the Midianites (cf. Num 24:21). The etymology or origin of the name Kenite is uncertain, although many think it means “smith.” The Kenites lasted much longer than the Midianites. They receive mention in the times of David (1 Sam 27:10; 30:29) and even into the times of Jeremiah (Jer 35; cf. 1 Chron 2:55). There they are a religious order. On the other hand, Moses apparently made the Midianites extinct when he slaughtered all but the young girls in Numbers 31:13-20.
4. Archeology and Midian. Since nomads build no cities and since no Midianite city name is even known, archeologists have little with which to work. Surveys of N Arabia have been made, but nothing noteworthy has come to light. The only relationship one can draw is between the name of the Haiappu tribe in the lists of Tiglath-pileser III and Ephah, one of the sons of Midian (Gen 25:4). According to the Assyrian record, that tribe paid taxes in gold, silver, camels, and spices. Isaiah 60:6 connects the names Midian, Ephah, and Sheba. In the Assyrian record the Haiappu occur with the Sabeans (i.e., Sheba).
Bibliography J. Montgomery, Arabia and the Bible (1934); H. H. Rowley, From Joseph to Joshua (1948), 152f.; E. G. Kraeling, Bible Atlas (1956), 100f., 108ff.; J. M. Adams, Biblical Backgrounds (rev. 1965), 106.