Although the position of the second cannot certainly be recognized from the Biblical account, it undoubtedly must be placed to the south and southeast of Edom, to which region Assyrian and classical indications point.
Genesis, 37: 25, relates that Ishmaelite merchants came from Gilead on camels, bringing various fragrant spices to Egypt, and arrived at the well into which the sons of Jacob had cast their brother Joseph. According to Genesis, 37: 28, the Madianite merchants drew him out, bought him, and took him to Egypt. The names Madianite and Ishmaelite would here seem to be used interchangeably. The trade caravan bearing fragrant spices to Egypt had perhaps branched off through Gilead from the main transport route leading from southern Arabia to Phoenicia and Damascus. It is impossible therefore to say with certainty that it proceeded from Gilead and that the Madianites encamped there. If the trade caravan had branched off from the transport route connecting the south with the north, there might have been both Ishmaelites and Madianites in it. Whether the fragrant spices belonged to these Madianite and Ishmaelite merchants or to a south Arabian wholesale trader, the Bible does not say. We do not know what fragrant spices are here meant, for the Ishmaelites and Madianites could have collected fragrant resin from terebinth and various species of acacia, which likewise were sold and still are sold in Egypt. Instead of Madianite merchants, we might have expected Sabaeans or else Maʻônites, or Meʻûnites (to give the variant form of the name of the inhabitants of the south Arabian halting place of Maʻôn). It is impossible to say precisely whence these Madianites came, whether from the region to the northeast of the Dead Sea or from that to the south of Edom, since they might have rented their camels to the caravans in whichever region they were encamped.
In Numbers, 22: 4, 7, it is stated that the elders of the Madianites made an agreement in northern Moab with the king of Moab against Moses and the Israelites. According to Numbers, 25: 17 f., the latter are urged to wage war upon the former, because the daughters of Madian led the Israelites astray at Sittîm by Jordan.
By the orders of Moses (Num., 31: 1—12) the Israelites made an expedition against the Madianites, killed four of their kings, captured their beasts of burden and their flocks as booty, and set fire to all the settlements in their territory and all their encampments.
According to Joshua, 13: 21, these kings of the Madianites dwelt in the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon.—Sihon of Heshbon was not a Moabite but a foreigner who had deprived the Moabites of their territory north of the Arnon and had settled in the town of Heshbon. It is hence possible and extremely probable that the Madianites accompanied him from his original country and encamped in the land which they helped him to obtain. Nowhere is it stated that they dwelt in towns and settlements or that they were engaged in agriculture or handicrafts. The towns which they owned were settlements paying them tribute, and the inhabitants tilled the soil for them in return for one-half or two-thirds of the total yield.
The Israelites under Moses defeated the Madianites but did not destroy them, for in Judges, 6, there is an account of the fresh sufferings which the Israelites endured from the Madianites. The Madianites allied themselves with the Amalekites and the Bene Ḳedem and came with