When Moshe fled from Pharaoh, he went to ארץ מדין (Shemos 2:15). Since מדין was one of the sons Avraham had with Ketura (Bereishis 25:2), and Avraham sent him (and his brothers) east (25:6), we would expect the land of מדין to be east of כנען. The proximity of מדין to מואב, as evidenced by their partnership hiring בלעם (Bamidbar 22:4) and then trying to cause the בני ישראל to sin (25:1, 26:6 and 31:15-16), supports this. מואב was on the east side of the Dead Sea, indicating that מדין must have also been east of כנען, in Jordan.
Another strong indication that מדין was east of כנען is the five kings/princes of מדין being described as “officers of סיחון” (Yehoshua 13:21). If the rulers of מדין were puppets of סיחון because מדין had been conquered by סיחון (see Radak), since סיחון’s land was on the east side of (the northern part of) the Dead Sea, מדין must have been in that area too.
Based on the assumption that this was where Moshe fled, the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabba 22:4 and Tanchuma Matos 3) says that Moshe sent Pinachas to attack מדין (Bamidbar 31:6) instead of going himself because it would be inappropriate for him to lead this campaign after having taken refuge there (similar to Aharon smiting the water and the ground instead of Moshe since they had helped Moshe). However, there is a second opinion in that Midrash, which says the מדין wiped out by Pinchas was not the same מדין Moshe fled to; Moshe sent Pinchas so that he could finish what he had started (when he killed Kuzbi).
The existence of a second מדין is helpful, because מדין was wiped out before בני ישראל entered the Promised Land (31:7-10), yet they were still around to cause trouble afterwards (Shoftim 6:1). If there was more than one מדין, and only one was wiped out, the other could be the second wave of troublemakers. However, the מדין that Gidon defeated in Shoftim seems to be in the same general area. Even if they weren’t right next to מואב, they were still “in the east,” close enough to qualify for Moshe not being the one to attack them. Moshe’s מדין must be elsewhere. R’ Dovid Luria, in his commentary on Bamidbar Rabba, says that the מדין that was wiped out was southeast of ארץ ישראל, while the מדין Moshe fled to was southwest of it, closer to Egypt. (He must think מדין subsequently spread back to the east.) I doubt that Moshe would have fled to an area so close to Egypt. Besides, Aharon and Moshe met at Mt. Sinai because it was on the way from Egypt to מדין (Shemos 4:27), and if מדין was southwest of ארץ ישראל, Mt. Sinai would not be between the two. [I find it ironic that some put מדין on the Sinai Peninsula because they think מדין must be near Mt. Sinai, while others put Mt. Sinai in Saudi Arabia because they think it must be near מדין. I don’t think Mt. Sinai and מדין have to be that close to each other, as long as Mt. Sinai is within a few days of both Egypt and מדין, and is on the way when going from one to the other.]
Modern scholars suggest that there were different tribes of מדינים, so one tribe being wiped out wouldn’t prevent another tribe from still causing problems. However, the implication (Bamidbar 31:8) is that all the kings of מדין were killed. Besides, why would there be five kings for just one tribe? It makes more sense that each of the five kings ruled over one of the five sons of מדין (Bereishis 25:4), as stated by מדרש החפץ (Bamidbar 31:8).
The Sifre (Bamidbar 157) says that the army Moshe sent to wage war against מדין only surrounded them from three sides, not four, in order to allow the מדינים to escape (see Rambam’s Hilchos Melachim 6:7). Therefore, only those who chose not to escape were wiped out, allowing מדין to continue as a nation via those who did. Nevertheless, if מדין was only in the east, why didn’t Moshe warn his father-in-law to vacate the area before the war (see Sh’muel I 15:6)? [Although in Bamidbar (10:29-33) it doesn’t say that his father-in-law returned home (only that he intended to), in Shemos (18:27, see Ramban on 18:1) it says he did.] On the other hand, why would multiple places be attributed to the same nation?
When we say that Ketura’s sons (which included מדין) lived “in the east,” how far north and south did they live? Being nomads (and therefore referred to as ישמעאלים, see Radak on Shoftim 8:24) who brought goods back and forth between Arabia and the Fertile Crescent, “ארץ בני קדם” seems to have covered a lot of ground. But that doesn’t mean they were all the same. Those who were more sedentary (possibly miners and potters rather than nomads) likely settled farther south, near the Red Sea, while those who moved from place to place throughout the year (with their flocks, and/or raiding others’ property) lived – and roamed – in the middle and towards the north. But they formed a contiguous (or semi-contiguous) line from north to south, with this somewhat diagonal line being east of the Promised Land. It was all מדין, but those in the south were (generally speaking) different from those who were parallel to כנען. True, Moshe’s father-in-law also had flocks, but he wasn’t a trader, and he preferred the southern lifestyle.
Conjecture? Sure. But Josephus does say (Antiquities 2:11) that the city of מדין where Moshe fled to was on the Red Sea. And the ancient city of Madyan is on the east coast of the Gulf of Aqaba (the right leg of the northern part of the Red Sea). [It’s also much closer to the Sinai Peninsula than מואב is.] So even though the מדין in Bamidbar and Shoftim is east of כנען, the מדין Moshe fled to seems to have been southeast of it, in northwest Saudi Arabia.
Rabbi Dov Kramer was raised in Kew Gardens Hills. Although no one from his family lives there anymore, there are currently Kramers in Lawrence, Kew Gardens, Far Rockaway, Columbus, Detroit, Passaic, Lakewood and Jerusalem.
