surprise, and defeated the enemy. He pursued them as far as the Ascent of Ḥeres (which I locate at Darb al-Mneḳḳa), whence he returned. Gideon’s companions took from the enemy many gold rings and other ornaments,
The victory of Gideon over the Madianites is recalled in Isaiah, 9: 3—4 and in Psalms, 83: 9—10.
Concerning the battles of the Madianites with the Moabites on the Moabite plain there is a reference also in Genesis, 36: 35.
It is difficult to determine who the Madianites were whom the Bible mentions as abiding to the east and northeast of the Dead Sea. In Genesis, 37: 25, 28, the names Madianite and Ishmaelite are used interchangeably, and there is a similar confusion in Judges, 8: 24. From this it would seem that the Madianite clans may have joined the Ishmaelite clans and encamped by the latter’s camping grounds to the east of Moab and Ammon. We do not know where these Madianite clans came from, but we may suppose that they had migrated from the land of Madian along the great transport route running from south to north. They rented their camels to the southern Arabian traders, who also hired camels from the Ishmaelites, the northern neighbors of the Madianites; thus they became acquainted and in common they harassed both the Moabites and the Israelites.
THE LAND OF MADIAN
Where was the land of Madian situated? The Bible refers to it for in Exodus, 2: 15, it is recorded that Moses sought a refuge from Pharaoh in the land of Madian, where he rested by a well at which the daughters of the priest of Madian were watering their flocks.
We cannot, however, after the manner of the Bible, give the name of the land of Madian to the region in which some Madianite clan was encamped only from time to time or temporarily, but should apply it to the land which formed, as it were, the headquarters of this tribe and which had belonged to it from a very early period.
According to the Biblical account, Moses, fostered by the daughter of Pharaoh, committed high treason by murdering an Egyptian official and thus setting an example of revolt to the immigrant Israelites. Knowing that he was threatened with death, he had to flee not only from Egypt proper but also from the bordering territory, to which Egyptian influence extended.
If we acknowledge that the story of Moses has an historical foundation we must suppose that Moses fled from Egypt somewhere about the beginning of the fifteenth century before Christ. At that time the whole of Palestine and a large part of Syria belonged to Egypt. Egyptian garrisons guarded the important transport routes on the peninsula of Sinai, and the chiefs of all tribes encamped upon this peninsula had to obey the Egyptian commanders and officials if they wished to barter, sell, or buy anything in Egypt or in southern Palestine. If a political culprit were to settle down among them, this would soon be discovered by the commander of the nearest frontier garrison, who would order the guilty man to be brought immediately before him, if the garrison themselves did not wish to incur punishment. So it was at that time and so it is still done today.
