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According to the Bible, Midian (מִדְיָן "Strife; judgment", Standard Hebrew Midyan, Tiberian Hebrew Miḏyān, Arabic مدين) was a son of Abraham and his concubine Keturah (Genesis 25:1-6). His descendants, the Midianites, settled in the territory east of the Jordan River (Tobit 1:14) and also much of the area east of the Dead Sea (later occupied by Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites), and southward through the desert wilderness of the Arabah. During the time of the Exodus, their territory apparently also included portions of the Sinai Peninsula. They dominated this territory from roughly the twelfth through the tenth centuries BCE.
In Bible history, Midian was where Moses spent the 40 years between the time that he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who had been beating a Hebrew (Exodus 2:11-15), and his return for leading the Israelites (Exodus 4:18). During those years, he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. According to Exodus 3:1, in Midian also occurred YHWH's appearance in the burning bush on the "mountain of God" in Horeb. As the Bible asserts, in later years the Midianites were often oppressive and hostile to the Israelites, at least partly as God's punishment for their idolatry (Judges 6:1). By the time of the Judges, the Midianites, led by two princes Oreb and Zeeb were raiding Israel with the use of swift camels, until they were decisively defeated by Gideon (Judges 6-8). Today, the former territory of Midian is found through small portions of western Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, southern Israel and the Sinai.
The ancient and historical people of Midian are also mentioned extensively in the Quran, where the name appears in Arabic as Madyan.
Geographical Position
In the Booko of Genesis, Midian was the son of Abraham and Keturah. His five sons, Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abidah (R. V. "Abida"), and Eldaah, were the progenitors of the Midianites (Gen. xxv. 1-4; I Chronicles i. 32-33). The term "Midian", which may be derived from the Semitic root for judgement (= "place of judgment"), denotes also the nation of the Midianites, the plural form, , occurring only in Gen. xxxvii. 28, 36 (in the latter passage seems to be a scribal error for ) and Num. xxv. 17, xxxi. 2. Their geographical situation is indicated in Genesis as having been to the east of Canaan; Abraham sends the sons of his concubines, including Midian, eastward (Gen. xxv. 6). But from the statement that Moses led the flocks of Jethro, the priest of Midian, to Mount Horeb (Ex. iii. 1), it would appear that the Midianites dwelt in the Sinai peninsula, having either migrated there or conquered or settled the area in addition to their eastern possessions. Later, in the period of the Israelite monarchy, Midian seems to have occupied a tract of land between Edom and Paran, on the way to Egypt (I Kings xi. 18). Midian is likewise described as in the vicinity of Moab: the Midianites were beaten by the Edomite king Hadad ben Bedad "in the field of Moab" (Gen. xxxvi. 35), and in the account of Balaam it is said that the elders of both Moab and Midian called upon him to curse Israel (Num. xxii. 4, 7). Further evidences of the geographical position of the Midianites appear in a survey of their history.
During the Exodus and the period of the Judges
In the time of Moses the Midianites are first mentioned as having had a priest by the name of Reuel or Jethro, who became afterward Moses' father-in-law. Toward the close of the forty years' wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness, the Midianites were allied with the Moabites against the Israelites. For this reason, according to the Torah, Moses was ordered by God to punish the Midianites. He despatched against them an army of 12,000 men, under Phinehas the priest; this force defeated the Midianites and slew all their males, including their five kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur (Midian), and Reba (Midian). It may be noted that these five princes of Midian are called by Joshua (xiii. 21) the vassals of Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon. It is possible that Sihon had previously conquered Midian and made it a vassal, and that after his death the Midianites recovered their independence. The Israelite soldiers set on fire all the cities and fortresses of the Midianites, carried the women and children into captivity, and seized their cattle and goods. The Israelites were afterward ordered by Moses to slay every Midianite male child and every woman, sparing only the female children (Num. xxxi. 2-18). It appears from the same account that the Midianites were rich in cattle and gold. The narrative shows that each of the five Midianite tribes was governed by its own king, but that all acted together against a common enemy; that while a part of each tribe dwelt in cities and fortresses in the vicinity of Moab, another part led a nomadic life, living in tents and apparently remote from the seat of the war. The account of Moses' war against the Midianites, and particularly his order of extermination, is highly questionable, as they reappear as a major power several generations later, in the time of Gideon.
The Biblical account of the battle between the Midianites and Gideon (Judges vi.-viii.) asserts that the Israelites suffered at the hands of the Midianites for a space of six years. The Midianites seem to have been then a powerful and independent nation; they allied themselves with the Amalekites and the Kedemites, and they oppressed the Israelites so severely that many were obliged to seek refuge in caves and strongholds; Midianite raiders destroyed crops and reduced them to extreme poverty (ib. vi. 1-6). The allied army of Midianites and Amalekites encamped in the valley of Jezreel (ib. vi. 33) after having crossed the Jordan. Gideon with his army encamped by the fountain of Harod, the Midianite army being to the north of him. With 300 men Gideon succeeded in surprising and routing them, and they fled homeward across the Jordan in confusion (ib. vii. 1-24). A point worth noting is that here only two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmuna, and two princes, Oreb and Zeeb, are mentioned (ib. vii. 25; viii. 3, 5, 10, 12, 18, 21). This would show that only two tribes bore the name "Midianites," while the remaining three probably were merged with other tribes, including perhaps partly with the Israelites. Midian is stated to have been "subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more" (ib. viii. 28). In fact, aside from allusions to this victory (Ps. lxxxiii. 10, 12; Isa. ix. 4, x. 6; Hab. iii. 7), Midian is not mentioned again in sacred history except in Judith ii. 16, where the term "Midianites" seems to be a mistake for "Arabians."
The Kenites and Ephah
The first recorded instance of a Midianite tribe surrendering its identity by attaching itself to another people appears in Judges i. 16. In this instance, which occurred in the period of the Judges, the Kenites, descendants of Jethro the Midianite, attached themselves to the Israelites in the wilderness of Judah, south of Arad. Later, in the time of Tiglath-pileser (745-727 BCE), a tribe, called in the cuneiform inscriptions "Ḥayapa" and identified by Friedrich Delitzsch ("Wo Lag das Paradies?" p. 304) with the tribe of Ephah, is said to have dwelt in the northern part of the Hejaz. Isaiah (lx. 6) speaks of Midian and Ephah as of two distinct peoples. The second son of Midian, Epher, is identified by Knobel with the Ghifar, an Arab tribe which, in the time of Mohammed, had encampments near Medina. Traces of the Midianites existed in post-Biblical times. Ptolemy ("Geography," vi. 7) mentions a place called Modiana, on the coast of Arabia; according to his statement of its position, this place may be identified with the Madyan of the Arabic geographers, in the neighborhood of 'Ain 'Una, opposite the extremity of the Sinaitic Peninsula, and now known under the name of "Magha 'ir Shu'aib" (= "the caves of Shu'aib" ).
In Archaeology
The Midianites have been tentatively connected by some scholars with the remnants of the Hyksos that were driven out of Egypt and made their home in the desert. They may be identical or a part of the people called Shasu by the Egyptians.
Economy
For a time during the decline of Egyptian power in the Levant, the Midianites controlled the copper mines at Timna. They were a sophisticated people whose territory sat astride several important trade routes of the ancient world- including the King's Highway. Rolls of fine cloth and beads have been discovered at Midianite sites, as well as fine objects of worked copper.
Religion
In the Bible, the Midianites are described as worshipping a multitude of gods, including Baal-peor and the Asherah. An Egyptian temple of Hathor at Timna continued to be used during the Midianite occupation of the site; however, whether Hathor or some other deity was the object of devotion during this period is impossible to ascertain.
The Midianites also seem to have been centered around a cultic site at Mount Horeb. This has led some scholars to speculate that the worship of YHWH may have actually begun among the Midianites, to be adapted later by the Israelites. Indeed, an Egyptian inscription refers to "Yhw in the land of the Shasu" as a tribe or people living in what would later become Midianite territory. According to the Bible the Midianites, like the Israelites, practiced circumcision.
Copper sculptures of serpents from Midianite sites are reminiscent of the Biblical story of Nahushtan (Numbers 21:6-9), a bronze snake statue created by Moses to stave off snake attacks. This has led to speculation of an ophidian cult among the Midianites, as existed among other ancient people, such as the Marsi.
See also
Resources
- Clines, David and John Sawyer, eds. "Midian, Moab and Edom: The History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and North-West Arabia". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series, No. 24. Sheffield Academic Press, 1983.
- Archaeology of Timna
- Another Timna archaeology site
- Richard Burton's account of his travels in "The Land of Midian"
- Midian on Bruce Gordon's Regnal Chronologies website
- Spring of Harod - Ma'ayan Harod
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)