Some time previous to the exodus it appears that the Midianites had allied themselves closely to the Moab- ites. Sihon, king of the Amorites, made war upon Moab and Ammon, conquered a large part of their ter- ritory, and retained possession of it (Judg. xi, 13-23). At the same time he made Midian, the ally of JNIoab, tributary; and hence the five princes of Midian are called by Joshua vassals (C3"'CiD ; Keil on Josh, xiii, 21) or " dukes" of Sihon. The defeat of Sihon by the Isra- elites secured the freedom of the Midianites ; and then tliey, fearing lest they should in like manner be sub- dued by Moses, conspired to destroy Israel, and thus brought destruction upon themselves. The government of Midian was doubtless similar to that of all the na- tions of Arabia— patriarchal. The nation was divided into a number of tribes, each of which was independent, and led by its own sheik or chief. In time of common danger or of war, the sheiks of the various tribes formed a council, but always acknowledged the presidency of the head of one leading family, who was (and still is) styled the "prince" {emir) of the nation. Five of the sheiks of Midian are mentioned in Judges as subjects of Sihon. In Numb, xxxi, 8 they are called " kings" (C"'2b'2); while in xxii, 4 IVIoab is said to have con- sulted with the " elders" (D'^JpT) of Midian. The great Arab tribes have two classes of chiefs : one class is com- posed of the rulers of the leading divisions of the tribe, the other of the rulers of subdivisions. The former are hereditary, the latter are simply influential or warlike men who", by their talents, have gathered around them a number of families. It would seem to be the former class— the hereditary rulers of 3Iidian— who are called " kings ;" while the others, the influential leaders or sen- atorsof the tribe, are termed '• elders." In the trans- action with Balaam, the elders of JNIidian went with those of Moab, "with the rewards of divination in their hand" (xxii, 7) ; but in the remarkable words of Balaam the Midianites are not mentioned. This might be ex- plained by the supposition that Midian was a wandering tribe, whose pasture-lands reached wherever, in the Arabian desert and frontier of Palestine, pasture was to be found, and who woidd not feel, in the same degree as Moab, Amalek, or the other more settled and agri- cultural inhabitants of the land allotted to the tribes of Israel, the arrival of the latter. But the spoil taken in the war that soon followed, and more especially the mention of the dwellings of Midian, render this sugges- tion very doubtful, and point rather to a considerable pastoral" settlement of Midian in the trans-Jordanic countr_v. Such settlements of Arabs have, however, been very common. In this case the Midianites were evidently tributary to the Amorites, being " dukes of Sihon, dweUing in the country" (y"^?0 "^r:'^^)'- <-bis
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inferior position cxjilains their omission from Balaam's prophecy. The rank of the Mitlianitish woman Cozhi, tliat of a daughter of Ziir, who was " head over a people, of a chief house in ;Mi(lian," throws a strange light over the obscure page of that peojjle's history. The vices of the Canaanites, idolatry and licentiousness, had infected the descendants of Abraliam, doubtless connected by suc- cessive intermarriages witli those tribes; and the pros- titution of this chief's daughter, caught as it was from tlie customs of the Canaanites, is evidence of the eth- nological type of the latter tribes. Some African na- tions have a similar custom : they oflFer their unmarried daughters to show hospitality to their guests.
4. There is no further mention of the Midianites in history for two hundred and fifty years. During that period the nation had completely recovered its ancient influence and power, probably by the arrival of fresh colonists from the desert tracts over which their tribes wandered; and thej' again turned their arms against their old enemies, the Israelites. For seven years they oppressed them so grievously that the people were forced to tlee from the open country, and to seek an asylum in mountain fastnesses, in caves, and in fortified cities (Judg. vi, 1, 2). jMidian was now at the head of a great; confederacy, comprising the Amalckitcs and the leading tribes of Arabia, called by the sacred historian Beni Kc- dein (" children of tlie East," ver. 3). In early spring the confederates assembled their vast flocks and herds, de- scended through the defiles of Gilead, crossed the Jor- dan, and overran the rich plains of Central Palestine, plundering and destroying all before them — "sheep, oxen, asses," property, the young corn, and the luxuri- ant pastures: "For they came up with their cattle, and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multi- tude ; for both they and their canuls were without inmiber; and they entered into the land to destro}' it" (ver. 5). In their distress the Israelites cried unto the Ix)rd, and he sent a deliverer in the person of Gideon (ver. 8-13 j. The invaders were concentrated on Esdrae- lon — their flocks covering the whole of that splcnuid plain, and their encampment lying along the base of " the hill of Moreh," now called Little llermon (ver. ."3 ; vii, 1, 12). Gideon assembled his band of warriors at the well of Ilarod, or fountain of Jczreel, situated at the foot of Gilljoa, and famed in after-days as the scene of Saul's defeat and death (vii, 1). See IIakod. The romantic incidents in this memorable camjjaign have been treated of elsewhere [see GidkonJ, but the j\Iid- ianitish side of the story is pregnant witli interest. The scene over that fertile plain, dotted with the enemies of Israel, " the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and all the Uene-Kedem, [who] lay along (C^lpED, yj-//, i. e. pitched their tents) in the valley like locusts for multi- tude, and their camels were without number, as the sand by the soa-slde for multitude" (vii, 12), has been picturesquely painted by I'rof. Stanlej^ {6'inai and Pal- estine, p. 333).