Mentioned in the Bible by name

Midian

When Husham died, Hadad, the son of Bedad, became king after him.
He was the one who defeated the Midianites in the land of Moab, and his city was called Avith.

When the Midianite merchants [verse 25] passed by, they [the brothers] pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. [The price for a young male slave was 20 shekels of silver, see Lev. 27:5. The price is also documented in the laws of Hammurabi, see §116, §214, and §252.] And they took Joseph to Egypt.
[The unusual triple repetition of Joseph's name in this verse "pulled Joseph up... sold Joseph... took Joseph" emphasizes and indicates that the event is important for the continuation of the story. The caravan probably consisted of both Ishmaelites and Midianites, see Gen. 17:20; 37:25, 27, 36; 39:1; Judg. 8:24. There is also a historical conflict here that goes back several generations. The Ishmaelites were descendants of Ishmael, whom Abraham had with the Egyptian Hagar about 180 years earlier, see Gen. 21:21. The Midianites were also descendants of Abraham from his marriage to Keturah and their son Midian, see Gen. 25:1–4]

[Meanwhile, Joseph was alive.] The Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's generals, the captain of the guard.

[His fears were correct, and the rumor spread quickly.] When Pharaoh heard what had happened, he wanted to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh [eastward] to the land of the Midianites, where he stayed. There he sat down by a well.

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. [Moses sat by the well and rested after his journey.] The daughters came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

Moses tended the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro (Hebr. Jitro), who was a priest in Midian. Once, he drove the sheep beyond the desert and came to God's (Elohim's) mountain Horeb (Hebr. Chorev) [another name for Mount Sinai].
[Moses is now 80 years old; he left Egypt at the age of 40 and has been tending his father-in-law's sheep ever since, see Acts 7:30. Chorev shares its root with the word for dry/desolate (Hebr. charev), which indicates that the mountain and the area are desert. The word also shares its root with the word cherev, which means sword. This takes on a deeper meaning when we know that God's word is described as a sword (Heb. 4:12) and it was on this mountain that God would later give them the teaching, the Torah, which is the fundamental part of God's word.]

The Lord said to Moses while he was in Midian: "Go back to Egypt. [I assure you:] All the men who sought to take your life are no longer alive."
[Moses was now eighty years old. Those who forty years earlier wanted to kill Moses were now dead, see Ex. 2:15. This may be Amenhotep I and his successor Amenhotep II, in which case the current pharaoh is Amenhotep III. An interesting detail is that his firstborn son Tutankhamun died at only 18-19 years of age, which fits well with the tenth plague in chapter 12.]

Now Jethro (Hebr. Jitro), the priest of Midian and Moses' father-in-law [Ex. 2:15], about all that God (Elohim) had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord (Yahweh) had brought Israel out of Egypt (Hebr. Mitsrajim – 'the land of confinement').

And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are journeying to the place of which the Lord (Yahweh) has said, 'I will give it to you,' come with us and we will treat you well, for the Lord (Yahweh) has spoken well of Israel."

And Moab said to the elders of Midian, "Now this crowd will eat up (literally lick up) everything around us, as oxen eat up the green of the fields." And Balak, son of Zippor, was king of Moab at that time.

And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with [reward/payment for] divination in their hands. [Balak's statement in verse 37 suggests that the payment was first discussed after Balaam came to him. Here they may have brought a partial payment with them, see also Num. 24:11.] And they came to Balaam and spoke Balak's words to him.

And behold, a man of the sons of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his brothers before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of the whole congregation of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.

The name of the Israelite man who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a leader of the fathers' houses among the Simeonites.

And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Kozbi, the daughter of Zor. He was the head of the people of the house of his fathers in Midian.

"Attack the Midianites and strike them down,

for they have attacked you with their tricks, luring you into the affairs of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague because of Peor."

"O Israel, avenge the Midianites, and then you shall be gathered to your people."

And Moses spoke to the people, saying, "Arm the men Hos for battle, that they may go out against Midian, to execute the Lord's (Yahweh's) vengeance upon Midian.

And they fought against Midian as the Lord (Yahweh) commanded Moses, and they struck down (killed) all the men (of Midian).

And they killed the king of Midian with the rest of the slain, Evi and Rekem and Tsor and Hur (Hebr. Chor) and Reva, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam, the son of Beor, with the sword.

And the sons of Israel took the women of Midian captive, and their little ones, and all their cattle, and all their small livestock, and all their possessions, they took as spoil.

and all the cities in the lowlands, and all the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses defeated with the leaders of Midian, Evi and Rekem and Tsor and Hur (Hebr. Chor) and Reva, the princes of Sihon who lived in the land,

And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord (Yahweh), and the Lord (Yahweh) delivered them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years.

And the hand of the Midianites prevailed against Israel, and because of the Midianites, the sons of Israel made caves for themselves in the mountains and caves and strongholds [natural mountain strongholds and cliffs – Hebr. masad; the same word as the famous ancient fortress Masada in the Negev desert].

Every time the Israelites had sown [their seed in the fall], [year after year for seven years] the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the east came up against them,

And Israel became very small (impoverished, poor; literally: 'brought down very low') [completely discouraged] because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord (Yahweh).
[The Midianites, together with the Amalekites and other peoples from the east (verse 3), did not primarily engage in warfare, like previous enemies, but instead stole and ravaged the land. The first attack on Israel came from the Amalekites. At that time, they had not even entered the land but were still wandering. The Amalekites used camels and specialized in surprise attacks where they came and plundered and robbed, see Ex. 17:8; Deut. 25:17–18.]

And it happened when the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord (Yahweh) because of the Midianites [who took their grain]

[The theme of fear/dread permeates the entire story of Gideon. The fear reflected in this story is a normal human fear that can arise in the face of the unknown or when faced with a challenge. But it must be overcome.]
The angel of the Lord came to Ophrah [on the plain of Jezreel] and sat under the terebinth tree belonging to Joash of the Abiezrites. Gideon, his son, was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites (so that they would not see or get to it).
[A generally accepted view is that the angel of the Lord is Jesus pre-incarnate, i.e., Jesus appearing as a messenger of the Lord before taking human form. The city of Ophrah is mentioned in connection with the Jezreel Valley and Mount Tabor. It seems to have been exposed to attack in the middle of the plain and is often identified with today's Afula. Gideon means "one who cuts down," which is an appropriate name considering his first mission to tear down the altar of Baal and the Asherah pole, see verse 25.]

Gideon replied, "But, Lord (Adonai), if the Lord (Yahweh) is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracles our fathers told us about when they said how the Lord (Yahweh) brought us out of Egypt? Now the Lord (Yahweh) has forsaken us and given us into the hands of the Midianites."

The Lord (Yahweh) turned to Gideon and said, "Go, and use the strength (Hebr. koach) you have, and you shall save Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Am I not sending you?"

The Lord (Yahweh) said to him, "I will be with you. You will strike down the Midianites [their entire army] as if they were one man."

And all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the east gathered together, and they crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.

And Jerubbaal [the name that Gideon's father gave him, see Judg. 6:32], who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him [from Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, see Judg. 6:35] rose early and camped at Ein-Charod [meaning: "trembling spring" or "source of fear"]. The Midianites' camp was [8 km] north of them at [Mount] Givat-More in the valley [Jezreel Valley].
[Camping at a spring was strategically advantageous. From Mount Gilboa, one can also see across the Jezreel Valley and the Midianite camp just under a mile northwest of them. The name of the spring, which comes from the verb for to fear, Hebr. charad, suggests that the name of the water also reflected the attitude of the troops. We do not know if Gideon still feared the Midianites, but from verse 3 we understand that the majority of the troops did. The mountain is literally called "the mountain of the teacher." Several important events have taken place here: Saul visits a fortune teller (1 Sam. 28:5–7), Elisha raises a woman's son in Shunem (2 Kings 4:8, 32–34). It is also on the other side of the hill that Jesus raises a woman's son in Nain (Luke 7:11–17).]

And the Lord (Yahweh) said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are far too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel exalt themselves against me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.

And the Lord (Yahweh) said to Gideon, "With the 300 men who lapped, I will save (deliver) you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the people go, every man to his place."

And they took the people's provisions in their hands and their shofars, and he sent all the men of Israel, every man to his tent, but kept the 300 strong (firm, sure, brave) men.
The camp of the Midianites was [at a lower elevation] below him in the valley.

And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east lay together in the valley like a swarm of locusts in number, and their camels were not to be counted, like the sand that is on the seashore in number.
[The swarm of locusts here refers to an invasion of locusts that come in such large swarms that they cause a minor solar eclipse where they pass. These swarms usually consist of many millions of locusts.]

And when Gideon came, behold, there was a man recounting his dream to his neighbor, saying, "Behold, I dreamed a dream, and a cake of barley bread rolled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it, and it fell and turned upside down so that the tent lay flat."

And his neighbor answered and said, "This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God (Elohim) has given Midian and all the army."

And it came to pass, when Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped and returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for the Lord (Yahweh) has given the army of Midian into our hand."

And the men of Israel gathered from Naphtali and from Asher and from Manasseh and pursued the Midianites.

And Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim [which stretched from Bethel, north of Jerusalem, up to the plain of Jezreel—the area later called Samaria], saying, "Come down against Midian, and take the waters before them as far as Beit-Bara and even the Jordan." And all the men of Ephraim gathered together and took the waters as far as Beth-barah and even the Jordan.

And they took two of the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they struck Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they struck in the winepress of Zeeb, and they pursued the Midianites. And they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.

And the men of Ephraim said to him, "Why did you treat us this way? Why didn't you call us when you went to fight the Midianites?" And they quarreled seriously with him.

God (Elohim) has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and what could I do compared to you?" Then their anger toward him subsided when he spoke these words.

And he said to the men of Succoth, "Please give bread to the people who are following me, for they are weak, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian."

And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them, and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he demoralized the entire army.

And the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, you and your son and your sons' sons, for you have saved us from the hand of the Midianites."

And the weight of the gold earrings he asked for was 1,700 shekels [20 kg] of gold. Besides the moon jewelry (Hebr. saharon) and the pendants (earrings) and the purple garments that were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that had been around the necks of their camels.

So Midian was subdued (they were forced to bow their knees—Hebr. kana) before the sons of Israel, and they no longer lifted up their heads. And the land had rest for 40 years in the days of Gideon.

for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian,

And they went up from Midian and came to Paran, and they took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who gave him a house and assigned him maintenance and gave him land.

When Husham died, Hadad, son of Bedad, became king after him. He defeated the Midianites in the land of Moab. His city was called Avith.

who was destroyed at Ein-Dor [Josh. 17:11; 1 Sam. 28:7],
they became dung on the ground.

For the yoke that weighed them down,
the crossbar on their shoulders and the rod of their tormentors (slave drivers) [for punishment]
you have broken down
in the same way as in the time of the Midianites [when Gideon was allowed to free the people, see Judg. 7–8].

And the Lord of hosts (Yahweh Sebaot) will stir up a scourge against him,
as when Midian was slaughtered at the rock of Oreb [when Gideon's small army defeated the Midianites with the help of the Lord, see Judg. 7:25],
and as his staff was over the sea,
so shall he lift it up in the Egyptian manner (way, manner). [Ex. 14:15–16]

Hordes of camels shall cover you [walk on your roads, Jerusalem],
young camels from Midian and Ephah [present-day Saudi Arabia].
All the merchants of Sheba [who once came to do business]
shall bring gold and frankincense and proclaim the praise (glory) of the Lord.

[The first and only time the prophet speaks in the first person in verses 3-15.]
I see the tents of Koshan under affliction,
the curtains (tent cloths) in the land of Midian tremble (shiver).
[This is the only time Koshan is mentioned. The use of "tents" suggests that it probably refers to a nomadic tribe. Since it appears in parallel with Midian, it can be assumed that their territory was also in the south.]