Midianites (Heb. midyân). Descendants of Midian, son of Abraham and Cetura (Gen 25:2, 6). They were a nomadic desert people who had a large number of camels (Num 10:29-31; Isa 60:6; Hab 3:7). Five tribal families descended from Midian (Gen 25:4; cf Num 31:8). The caravan to which Joseph’s brothers sold him was made up of Ishmaelites and Midianites, who had come from Gilead with merchandise for Egypt (Gen 37:25, 28, 36). Moses’ father-in-law and his brother-in-law were Midianites (Exo 3:1; Num 10:29-31). When the Israelites camped near the Jordan, before crossing into western Palestine, the Midianites joined with the Moabites to seduce the Israelites into idolatry and license. Consequently, Moses made war against them, and killed their 5 kings and many of his people (Num 22: 4-6; 25: 1-18; 31: 1-12). From Josh 13:21 we learn that the Midianite kings had been allies of Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, who had also been defeated by the Israelites under Moses. In the period of the judges, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other Eastern peoples invaded Palestine and covered the country with their flocks and tents. They oppressed the Hebrews for 7 years, appropriating their crops and producing a lot of misery in the population. Finally, God raised up Gideon, who, with a small band of mighty men, shattered his oppressors in battle on the plain of Jezreel. He pursued the rest of the 735 deep into Transjordan, his homeland. His princes – Oreb, Zeeb, Zeba and Zalmuna – were captured and killed (Jdg_6-8; Psa 83: 9-11; Isa 9: 4; 10:26). Although the Midianites continued to exist, since they are mentioned again later (Is. 60:6: Hab 3:7), they were never again a threat to the Israelites. See Raguel.
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
type, TRIB
see, MADIí N
see, Dwellers of the desert (Gen. 25:2, 6; Num. 10:29-31; Isa. 60:6; Hab. 3:7; Jdt. 2:26). Five families arose from Midian (see MADIí N), the father of them all (Gen. 25:4). Midianite merchants bought Joseph and took him to Egypt; they accompanied the caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead (Gen. 37:25, 28, 36). Moses’ father-in-law was a Midianite (Ex. 3:1). The Midianites, allied with the Moabites, seduced Balaam into cursing Israel and lured them into an idolatrous and immoral cult (Num. 22:4, 6; 25). Jehovah commanded Moses, therefore, to fight against Midian. The Israelites killed the five kings of this nation, all the men and all the married women, who had been the instigators of all the dissolution into which Israel had fallen (Num. 31:3-18; cf. v. 16). The kings of Midian were allies, or vassals, of Sihon, king of the Amorites (Josh. 13:21). In the time of the Judges, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the East invaded Canaan like a swarm of locusts. There they took their animals, their tents, also seizing the crops of the Israelites, who were reduced to the greatest extremity. After seven years, the Lord, taking pity on the people in need of him, gave him a deliverer, Gideon. He crushed the oppressors in the battle of the Jezreel plain, killing the two princes Oreb and Zeeb, and later the kings Zeba and Zalmuna. From then on the country had forty years of peace (Judges 6-8; 9:17; Ps. 83:9-12; Is. 9:3; 10:26). After that, the Midianites are not mentioned again in the Bible, except as historical reminiscence (Isa. 60:6; Hab. 3:7). It is probable that, being early mixed with the Ishmaelites, they were finally absorbed by the nomads of the northern Arabian desert, designated by the general name of Arabs.
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Nomadic people of Upper Arabia, frequently cited in the Bible with a certain contempt and aggressiveness due to their violent character and propensity for looting and violence: Gen. 25.2; Isaiah 60.6; Thu. 6-8; Room 3.7. Although they appear related to Moses (Ex. 18. 1-12; Ex. 18.13-27), they did not achieve the normal appreciation among the Jews. After Gideon’s victory over them, this people is not cited again as Israel’s adversary.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
They were constituted by five families related to Abraham by Midián, son of the concubine Cetura. Abraham dispatched them to the E together with the other sons he had had with concubines (Gen. 25:1–6). This is why the Midianites inhabited the desert frontier places in the Transjordan, from Moab to beyond Edom.
They were desert dwellers, related to the Ishmaelites and the Medanites (Gen. 37:28, 36) when *Joseph was sold into Egypt; for the partial overlapping of these three terms, cf. Thu. 8.24, where the Midianites defeated by Gideon are said to be Ishmaelites because they wore gold earrings.
Moses had a Midianite wife, Zipporah; as well as a father-in-law, Jethro/Reuel (Ex. 2.21; 3.1, etc.), and a brother-in-law, Hobab (Num. 10.29; Judg. 4.11), of that nationality. As a man of the desert, Moses asked Hobab to guide Israel on their journey across the steppe (or “desert”) (Num. 10:29–32).
Later, on the plains of Moab, the rulers of Midian and Moab combined to call on Balaam to curse Israel (Num. 22ff), and the Midianites and Moabites led Israel into idolatry and immorality (Num. 25), so they had to be wounded (Num. 25.16–18; 31). The five princes of Midian were allied with the Amorite king Sihon (Jos. 13.21). In the time of the judges, through Gideon and his little band (Judg. 6-8; 9:17), God freed Israel from the scourge of the camel-riding peoples, that is, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and others ” Children of the East”, an event immortalized by the psalmist and the prophet Isaiah (Ps. 83.9; Is. 9.4; 10.26). So far this is the earliest known reference to the large-scale use of camels for warfare (WF Albright, Archeology and the Religion of Israel, 1953, pp. 132–133), but it is certainly not the earliest reference to domesticated camels (* Animals, Camel; and WG Lambert, BASOR 160, 1960, p. 42–43, for an indirect Old Babylonian reference). The camels of Midian appear again in Is. 60.6. In Hab. 3.7 Midian appears parallel to Cusan, an ancient term that probably comes from the koshu that the egp texts mention. from ca. 1800 BC (see WF Albright, BASOR 83, 1941, pp. 34, n. 8; cf. G. Posener, Princes et Pays d’Asie et de Nubie, 1940, pp. 88, and B. Maisler, Revue d’ Histoire Juive en Egypte 1, 1947, pp. 37–38;* Cushite, Woman).
Bibliography. WF Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity, 1959, pp. 136–138; M. Noth, The World of the Old Testament, 1976, pp. 99; R. Sánchez, “Madián”, °EBDM, t
K.A.K.
Douglas, J. (2000). New Biblical Dictionary: First Edition. Miami: United Bible Societies.
Source: New Bible Dictionary
(In Midianites Authorized Version).
Arab tribe (The Seventy Madienaîoi and Madianeîtai, Latin Madianitæ). The comparison of Genesis 36,35, with 37,28-36 proves that the biblical authors indifferently use the simple form Midian (Sep. Midian, Lat. Midian) instead of the tribal plural. The collective name Midian appears in chapters 6 to 8 of Judges, and it seems that it was preferred later (cf. Is. 9,3; 10,26; Ps. 83(82),10). In 1 Ry. 11,18 and Habakkuk 3,7, for example, if Midian denotes a country, it is by a transposition of the name of the people, which was not the original use. By a misleading but unconvincing argument P. Haupt (“Midian und Sinai” in “Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft”, LXIII, 1909, p. 506) has even recently tried to prove that Midian was an abstract term denoting a religious association just as the Greeks called an amphictyony (‘amphiktuonía). In that case, the term Midianites must have been used something like saying Muslims.
The Midianites were introduced to history in the texts of Gn. 25:1-4 and 1 Chron. 1.32ff. that he assigns to his ancestors an eponym called Midián, the son of Abraham and Keturá (DV Cetura), which means incense or carries the idea of incense and aromatics (cf. Dt. 33,10). Of the other five children that Abraham had with Queturá the only one that can be identified is Súaj (BDV Sue). For a long time Delitzsch suggested a connection between this name and that of Suhu, a country, mentioned in Assyrian documents (“Wo lag das Paradies”, Leipzig, 1881, 297 sqq.), which is the desert region between the Euphrates and Syria (see Ed. Meyer* “Die Israeliter und ihre Nachbarstämme”, Halle, 1906, 314.—Dadan, too, can probably be regarded as a geographical name in the Teima region). The continuation of the genealogy establishes his character and allows a better identification of the Midianites: Midian must have had five sons, Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abidah, and Eldaah. The last two are used as proper names in Sabeo-Mine inscriptions, but are otherwise unknown. The first three, which appear in later Israelite genealogies (see Num. 26.5; 1 Chron. 2.47; 4.17), have been correctly compared with local and ethnological designations in southern Arabia (see the very important citations of Arab authors collected in Dillmann, “Die Genesis erklärt”, 6th ed., Leipzig, 1892, 308 sqq.). For Epha in particular there is the valuable testimony of the Assyrian texts. The Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III (DV Theglathphalasar); (d. 727 BC) mention among the tribes of Teima and Saba a tribe called Hayapa. It can be inferred from these indications that the Midian genealogy is a literary process by which the Bible connects the Arab tribes of the regions now called Nejd and Jáûf with the history of the Hebrew people. Therefore, Midianites must be considered the generic name of a huge tribe divided into several clans of which we know at least some of the names.
This notion established, there will be little difficulty in tracing through sacred history the role played by the Midianites, without resorting, as has often been done, to alleged contradictions in the sources. Some of these—for example, Gen. 37,28-36 (cf. Is. 60,6), represents them as merchants mainly engaged in the transportation of aromatics in caravans of camels. Others, for example Ex. 2,15ss. and 3.1 describes them as shepherds, but somewhat sedentary. In one place (for example, Ex. 18,6-12 and Jc. 1,16; see the comments of Moore, Lagrange, etc., for the exact interpretation) the Midianites in general, or the special clan of the Kenites appear as the friends and allies of Israel; in another (Jc. 6 – 8 and Num. 25,32) they are irreconcilable enemies; Hab. 3,7 manifestly locates them in the south of Arabia, by the parallel with a Hebrew name that designates a country in the east of Kish, more certainly different from Nubia…