Midian

The land of the descendants of Midian, a son of Abraham by Keturah, lying in the desert east of the Gulf of Aqaba. After killing an Egyptian, Moses fled here and lived with the priest Jethro, and from here he was sent back to Egypt; in the time of the judges the Midianites oppressed Israel for years until Gideon routed them with three hundred men.

The Midianites were descendants of Abraham through his later wife Keturah; the genealogy names Midian, whose sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah (Ge 25:2, 4), and the Edomite king list mentions Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the field of Moab (Ge 36:35). 1) Moses' flight and call. After killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, Moses fled from Pharaoh to the land of Midian and sat down by a well (Ex 2:15). The priest of Midian had seven daughters; Moses helped them water the flocks, later married Zipporah, and shepherded the flock of his father-in-law Jethro (Ex 2:16; 3:1). At Horeb he saw the burning thornbush and received the commission to return to Egypt; after taking leave of Jethro, Jehovah told him in Midian to go back to Egypt (Ex 4:18-19). Recounting this history before his martyrdom, Stephen said Moses fled and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons (Ac 7:29). 2) Balaam and the elders of Midian. Near the end of the wilderness wanderings, King Balak of Moab, in fear, together with the elders of Midian took fees for divination to summon Balaam to curse Israel (Nu 22:4, 7). Later, when Israel was enticed by Midianite women at Peor, Jehovah commanded Moses to harass the Midianites and strike them down (Nu 25:17). 3) The vengeance and Gideon. At Jehovah's command Moses avenged Israel on the Midianites, killing the five kings of Midian—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba—and also Balaam the son of Beor (Nu 31:2, 7-8). In the days of the judges, because Israel did what was bad in Jehovah's eyes, they were given into the hand of Midian for seven years; the Midianites, Amalekites, and Easterners camped as numerous as locusts, their camels without number like the sand of the seashore (Jg 6:1; 6:33; 7:12), yet Jehovah chose Gideon and delivered the vast Midianite camp into the hands of three hundred men. In his vision the prophet Habakkuk also recalled that at Jehovah's coming the tent cloths of the land of Midian trembled (Hab 3:7).