According to the Bible, Midian (מִדְיָן "Strife; judgment", Standard Hebrew Midyan, Tiberian Hebrew Miḏyān) was a son of Abraham and his concubine Keturah (Genesis 25:1-6). The holy Jewish scripture: The Torah. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... Tiberian Hebrew is an oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient forms of Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Bible, that was given written form by masoretic scholars in the Jewish community at Tiberias in the early middle ages, beginning in the 8th century. ... Abraham (אַבְרָהָם Father/Leader of many, Standard Hebrew Avraham, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAḇrāhām; Arabic ابراهيم IbrāhÄ«m) is the patriarch of Judaism, recognized by Christianity, and a very important prophet in Islam. ... Concubinage is either the state of a couple living together as lovers with no obligation created by vows, legal marriage, or religious ceremony, or the state of a woman supported by a male lover who is married to, and usually living with, someone else. ... In the Book of Genesis, Keturah or Ketura (קְטוּרָה Incense, Standard Hebrew Qətura, Tiberian Hebrew Qəṭûrāh) is the woman whom Abraham marries after the death of Sarah. ...

His descendants, the Midianites, settled in the territory east of the Jordan River (Tobit 1:14) and also much of the area east of the Dead Sea (later occupied by Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites), and southward through the desert wilderness of the Arabah. During the time of the Exodus, their territory apparently also included portions of the Sinai Peninsula. Northern part of the Great Rift Valley as seen from space (NASA) The Jordan River is a river in Southwest Asia flowing through the Jordan Rift Valley into the Dead Sea. ... The Jordan River flowing into the Dead Sea The Dead Sea (Arabic البحر الميت,Hebrew ים המלח) is the lowest exposed point on the Earths surface. ... Ammon is an Egyptian proper noun that can refer to at least two distinct entities. ... Moab (מוֹאָב Seed of father/leader, Standard Hebrew Moʾav, Tiberian Hebrew Môʾāḇ) is the historical name for a mountainous strip of land in Jordan running along the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. ... Edom (אֱדוֹם, Standard Hebrew Edom, Tiberian Hebrew ʾĔḏôm), a word meaning red, is both a location and a person featured in the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible. ... The Arabah (Standard Hebrew Wadi Arava; Arabic Wadi Arabah) is the section of the Great Rift Valley lying between the Dead Sea in the North and the Gulf of Aqaba/Gulf of Elat in the South. ... Exodus is the second book of the Torah (the five books of Moses) and also the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and Christian Old Testament. ... Sinai Peninsula, Gulf of Suez (west), Gulf of Aqaba (east) from Space Shuttle STS-40 The Sinai Peninsula (in Arabic, Shibh Jazirat Sina شبه جزيرة سيناء) is a triangle-shaped peninsula lying between the Mediterranean Sea (to the north) and Red Sea (to the south), located in Egypt and has an area of...

In Bible history, Midian was where Moses spent the 40 years between the time that he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who had been beating a Hebrew (Exodus 2:11-15), and his return for leading the Israelites (Exodus 4:18). During those years, he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. According to Exodus 3:1, in Midian also occurred the Lord's appearance in the burning bush on the mountain of God in Horeb. Moses or Móshe (מֹשֶׁה, Standard Hebrew Móše, Tiberian Hebrew Mōšeh, Arabic موسى Musa), son of Amram and his wife, Jochebed, a Levite. ... Zipporah or Tzipora (צִפּוֹרָה Bird, Standard Hebrew Ẓippora, Tiberian Hebrew Ṣippôrāh), mentioned in the Book of Exodus, is Mosess wife. ... Jethro (יִתְרוֹ His excellence/posterity, Standard Hebrew Yitro, Tiberian Hebrew Yiṯrô) is a figure from the Hebrew Bible. ... The term God is capitalized in the English language as a proper noun when used to refer to a specific monotheistic concept of a Supreme Being. ...

As the Bible asserts, in later years the Midianites were often oppressive and hostile to the Israelites, at least partly as God's punishment for their idolatry (Judges 6:1). By the time of the Judges, they were raiding Israel with the use of swift camels, until they were decisively defeated by Gideon (Judges 6-8). Today, the former territory of Midian is found through small portions of western Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, southern Israel and the Sinai. Idolatry is a term used by many religions to describe the worship of a false deity, which is an affront to their understanding of divinity. ... The term, Judges, may refer to the Book of Judges in the Bible or to the office of judge. ... Species Camelus bactrianus Camelus dromedarius A camel is either of the two species of large even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus, the Dromedary (Single hump) and the Bactrian Camel (Double hump). ... Gideon (גִּדְעוֹן, Standard Hebrew Gidʿon, Tiberian Hebrew Giḏʿôn) is a character who appears in the Bibles Book of Judges. ...

The ancient and historical people of Midian are also mentioned extensively in the Quran, where the name appears in Arabic as Madyan. The Quran (Arabic al-qurʾān أَلْقُرآن; also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ...

See also

• History of ancient Israel and Judah
• The Bible and history