“ Thus the sons of Keturah are the “incense-men,” not indeed inhabitants of the far south incense-land, but presumably the tribes whose caravans brought the incense to Palestine and the Mediterranean ports. So the Midianites appear in connexion with the gold and incense trade from Yemen (Isa. lx. 6) , and with the trade between Egypt and Syria (Gen. xxxvii. 28, 36) . They appear also as warriors invading Canaan from the eastern desert, and ravaging the land as similar tribes have done in all ages when Palestine lacked a strong government (see Gideon) . ”

“ The Kenites who had friendly relations with Israel and are represented in Judg. i. 16, iv. 11, as the kin of Moses’s father-in-law, appear to have been but one fraction of Midian which took a separate course from their early relations to Israel. [1] Balaam, according to one version of the story, was a Midianite (Num. xxii. seq.) ”