Midianite

The Midianites were a biblical people, descended from one of the sons of Abraham through his consubine Keturah. They settled in the territory east of the Jordan River and also to the 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 reportedly dominated this territory from roughly the twelfth through the tenth centuries B.C.E.

In Bible history, the land of Midian was where Moses spent the 40 years between the time that he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11–15) and his return to leading the Israelites our of Egypt. During those years, he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. Exodus 3:1 implies that God's appearance in the burning bush at Horeb also occurred in Midian.

In later years, however, the Midianites were often oppressive and hostile to the Israelites. By the time describe in the Book of 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 located in western Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, southern Israel, and the Egyptian Sinai penninsula.

The ancient people of Midian are also mentioned extensively in the Qur'an, where the name appears in Arabic as Madyan. The Prophet Shoaib “Jethro” Mosque and Tomb is located near the Jordanian city of Mahis in an area called Wadi Shuib

In the Bible, Midian (Hebrew: מִדְיָן is a son of Abraham and his concubine Keturah (who according to midrash is Hagar).

The term "Midian," may be derived from the Semitic word for "judgment."

Geographical Position

In the Book of Genesis, Midian was the son of Abraham and Keturah. His five sons, Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abidah, and Eldaah, were the progenitors of the Midianites (Genesis 25:1–4; I Chronicles 1:32–33). 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.(Genesis 25:6). But from the statement that Moses led the flocks of Jethro, the priest of Midian, to Mount Horeb (Exodus 3:1), 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 11:18). 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" (Genesis 36:35), and in the account of the prophet Balaam it is said that the elders of both Moab and Midian called upon him to curse Israel (Numbers 22:4,7).

Before and during the Exodus

In Exodus, the land of Midian is introduced as the place to which Moses flees when running away from Pharaoh. There, he encountered Jethro, a Midianite priest, who later became Moses' father-in-law. Moses thus lived among the Midianites, and it is during this period that he encountered Yahweh for the first time in the account of the bruning bush. Yahweh was apparently a god known to the Midianites, for Jethro offered sacrifice to Him and shared the feast with elders of Israel (Ex. 18:12).

However, toward the close of the 40 years' wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness, the Midianites who lived east of the Jordan joined with the Moabite king Balak to ask the prophet Balaam son of Beor to curse the Israelites (Numbers 22). Balaam—who like Jethro honored Yahweh—famously refused to do so and blessed the Israelites istead. Subsequently Israelites coexisted peacefully with Moabites and Midianites (Numbers 25). However, during this time the Israelites intermarried with Midianite women and adopted religious practices deemed unacceptable to Yahweh. When a plague soon broke out among the Israelites, Moses understood this as a punishment from God. To put an end to the plague, the Israelite priest Phinehas then personally killed a Midianite princess named Cozbi, who had married an Israelite man, impaling both her and her husband with a single spear thrust. Moses was ordered by God to treat Midianites from then on as enemies (Num. 25).

Israelite solider capture Midian women women and lead them away.

Moses' last command from God was to take "vengeance" against the Midianties (Num. 31). He dispatched an army of 12,000 men, under Phinehas. This force utterly defeated the Midianites and reportedly slew all their males, including their five kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. Also put to death was the prohet Balaam, who had earlier blessed Israel but was now blamed for tempting Israel to sin.

The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho. (Num. 31:9-12)

This, however was deemed not to be a thorough enough slaughter. "Have you allowed all the women to live?" Moses asked. He then order that all the older women be put together, together with all of the boys, leaving only the virgin girls alive to become wives of the Israelite soldiers.

The narrative indicates that each of the five Midianite tribes was governed by its own king, but that all acted together against a common enemy. Some of the Midianites seem to have lived the fortified towns in the vicinity of Moab, while others lived a nomadic life, apparently remote from the seat of the war.

The account of Moses' war of extermination against the Midianites, however, appears to be exaggerated, for the Midiantes, reappear as a major power several generations later, in the time of Gideon.

During the period of the Judges

The Biblical account of the battle between the Midianites and Gideon 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. The allied army of Midianites and Amalekites encamped in the valley of Jezreel 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. A point worth noting is that here only two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmuna, and two princes (or generals - Hebrew: שַׂר), Oreb and Zeeb, are mentioned. 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." In fact, aside from allusions to this victory, Midian is not mentioned again in sacred history except in Judith 2:26, 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 1:16. 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 B.C.E.), a tribe, called in the cuneiform inscriptions "Hayapa" 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 60:6 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 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. This conclusion has to be compared with the derivation of Shasu as meaning "foot travelers," vice the depiction in Judges 6 where it says "their camels were innumerable."

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 (the name of God in Judaism) may have actually begun among the Midianites to be adapted later by the Israelites, a claim contested by many Christian scholars. 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.

Music

The name of the third full-length album by British metal band Cradle of Filth. Cradle of Filth's lyrics are often inspired by Crowley, H.P.Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Arthurian legends etc... The "Midian" album, as well as a later effort called Thornography, feature narratives by Doug Bradley, the actor who played the "Head Cenobite" in the Hellraiser movies.

Film

The 1990 Clive Barker film Nightbreed takes place mainly in a city named Midian, full of strange creatures and built underneath a cemetery. The movie is based on Barker's novella Cabal.

See also

• Balak
• Eglon
• Ishmaelites
• Kedar
• History of ancient Israel and Judah
• The Bible and history
• Cradle of Filth
• Nightbreed

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

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.
• Singer, Isidore and M. Seligsohn. "Midian and Midianites". Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906, which cites to:

• Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl.;
• Sir Richard Burton, The Gold Mines of Midian, London, 1878;

• idem, The Land of Midian Revisited, ib. 1879.S.

• 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
• Midianite pottery in American Schools of Oriental Research Newsletter 55-3 (2005): 12 = Albright News 10 (2005): 11

Sons of Abraham by wife

Hagar

Ishmael

Sarah

Isaac

Keturah

Zimran

Jokshan

Medan

Midian

Ishbak

Shuah

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