After their defeat by Gideon, however, we hear of them no more.

They passed out of the Israelitish horizon; henceforth their raiding bands never approached the frontiers of Israel.

The land of Midian alone is mentioned as adjoining Edom; the Midianites who had traversed the desert and carried terror to the inhabitants of Canaan become merely a name.
Midian was originally governed by high-priests.

This was the case among other Semitic peoples as well.

In Assyria the kings were preceded by the high-priests of Assur, and recently-discovered inscriptions show that in southern Arabia, in the land of Sheba, the high-priest came before the king.