MID'IANITES. A name applied somewhat indefinitely in the Old Testament to groups of Bedouins. According to Gen. XxV. 2, Midian, the eponymous ancestor. is a son of Abraham through his 'Arabic' wife Keturah. That the Midianites are to be reckoned with the Arabs is clear, but we find them now at Mount Sinai (Ex. iii. 1), again to the east of Israel (Gen. xxv. 4), while in the days of Gideon they advance from the Syrian desert (Judges vi.), and again (Num. XXV. 6.9 ) they occupy the northern portion of Moab. This shifting abort is to be accounted for not merely by the natural movements of nomadic tribes, but through the generic mean ing that Midian seems to have acquired, much as in the Talmud. 'raj. which originally designated sl particular Arabic clan, becomes the designation for Arabs in general. The Midianites as de scribed in Judges (vi.-viii.) are thorough Bed uins, whereas the Midianites around Sinai are a pastoral people. The latter seem to have been
the original Midianites, and the fact that Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, is described as a 'Midian ite' ( Ex. iii. 1), whereas in Judges i. 16 he is called the 'Kenite.' is due to the more compre hensive character of the former term, which led to its gradual extension until it became synony mous with Bedouin. The land of Midian ex tended northward from Floret). or Sinai. close to the eastern shore of the Gulf of Akabah. A place called Modiana is mentioned by Ptolemy close to the Red Sea, and about opposite the ex tremity of the Sinaitic peninsula, and no doubt this stands in sonic relationship in the original application of Midian in the 01(1 Testament. Consult. Burton, Gold Mines of Indian (London, 1878) ; Land of Indian Revisited (ib., 1879).