The traditional belief among medieval Jewish commentators was that Keth'Ur'A had the same role played by Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid from which Abraham's firstborn Ish'Ma'El, the progenitor of the Ish'Ma'El'Ites, was born. God's plan shows us the Old and the New Covenant with each woman representing the world of the flesh according to the time in which they came to the life of Ab'Ra'Ham.
Hag'Ar and Keth'Ur' A, both are called concubines of Ab'Ra'Ham, but Sarah always was referred to as wife. Sarah is the Covenant itself, and the 2 concubines represents the Old flesh and the New flesh.
Then when Abraham still was alive, he gave his whole state unto Isaac, his son through his wife Sarah, the son of the Promise, But unto the sons of his concubines Ab'Ra'Ham gave gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac. Therefore the sons of the concubines have gifts that were given by his father when he was alive but those gifts are not powerful enough to attain salvation and eternal life.
According to the Scripture, the Midianites, were descendants of Midian, the son of Ab'Ra'Ham through Keth'Ur'A. Ab'Ra'Ham and Keth'Ur'A had 6 sons.
Genesis 25 says, "... she bore him Zimr'An, -Jok'Sh'An, -Med'An, -Midi'An, -Ishb'Ak, and -Shu'Ah.
-Jok'Sh'An's sons were Sh'Eba and Ded'An. Ded'An descendants were the Assh'Ur'Ites, Letu'Sh'Ites, Leumm'Ites.
-Mid'Ian's sons were Eph'Ah, -Eph'Er, -Han'Och, -Ab'Ida, -El'Da'Ah. (1-4)
Mid'Ian is also mentioned in the Scripture through these series of events:
-Joseph, an important figure in the Scripture was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers to Mid'Ian, who came across them, and Mid'Ian'Ites sold Joseph to the Ish'Ma'El'Ites. Joseph rose to become vizier, the second powerful man in Egypt next to Pharaoh.
-Mid'An is the place where Moses spent 40 years in voluntary exile after killing an E'gypt'ian.
-Moses married Zipp'Or'Ah the daughter of Jeth'Ro (also known as Reu'El), the priest of Mid'Ian.
-Jeth'Ro advised Moses on establishing a system of delegated legal decision-making.
-Moses asked Hob'Ah, the son of Reu'El (Jeth'Ro) the Midianite, to accompany the Israelites traveling towards the Promised Land because of his local knowledge, although Hob'Ah preferred to return to his homeland.
-Cozbi, the daughter of Z'Ur, a prominent Medianite chief, was speared by Phinehas, a priest, grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priest, together with the Israelite Zim'Ri, son of a Simeon'Ite chief. Zimri, as Prince of a family within the Tribe of Simeon, took the woman into his family as a concubine. The Midianite women's seductions of Israelites to their idol Baal-Peor is described as the cause of offense to God, even though, the Midianites were racially akin to the Israelites as descendants of Abraham, and Moses' own wife Zipporah was Midianite.
-Soon after, God instructed Moses to collect an army and destroy Mid'Ian.
-The Israelites killed every Midianite male including the chief Z'Ur and four other named chiefs, and brought back the women and children as prisoners of war.
-Moses condemned the Midianite women as the cause of the enmity (threatening, forceful adverse) between the Israelites and the Midianites, and ordered every woman who had slept with a man to be killed (Numbers 31), but 32,000 girls who have never slept with a man were kept as slaves.
-Israel was oppressed by Mid'Ian for 7 years during the time of Judges (chapter 6). Gideon was called by God to deliver Israel from Mid'ian's armies. He killed the Mid'Ian princes Or'Eb and Ze'Eb, then pursued their kings Zeb'Ah and Zal'Mun'Na as far as Kar'Kor in the open desert wastes on the East of the Jordan, not far beyond Succoth and Penuel to the South, slaying them as well.
-Hadad the Edomite, opposing King Solomon, passed through Mid'ian and Par'An while fleeing from Edom to Egypt.
-Isaiah 60 speaks of camels from Midian and Ephah coming to "cover your land," along with the gold and frankincense from Sheba. This passage is taken by the Gospel of Matthew as a foreshadowing of the Magi's gift to the infant Jesus. Again the representation of the Abraham's gifts given to the sons of the concubines are offered to the Christ Jesus, showing Him as the only one powerful enough to defeat Satan and the power of Death.
Mid'Ian, in a religious sense, was a foundation or confederation of tribes brought together as a cultic collective league in the vicinity of a sanctuary to exercise their gifts for worship purposes. It is uncertain which deities the Mid'Ianites worship. But through the apparent religio-political connection with the Moab'Ites they are thought to have worshiped a multitude, including Baal-peor and the Queen of heaven, Ash'Ter'Oth.
An Egyptian temple of Hath'Or (personification of joy, music, feminine love, motherhood) at Tim'Na, North of the Gulf of Aq'Aba (area rich in copper ore mined since 5th BC) continued to be used for cultic purposes during Mid'Ian occupation of the site . Mid'Ian transformed the Hath'Or mining temple into a desert tent-shrine. However , whether Hath'Or or some other deity was the object of devotion during this period is difficult to ascertain. Post-holes, large quantities of red and yellow decayed cloth with beads woven into it, along with numerous copper rings/wire used to suspend the curtains, were unearthed all along two walls of the shrine. Mid'Ian did make offerings to whoever the divinity was, especially since a large number of Mid'Ian votive vessels were also discovered in the shrine. The Mid'Ian tent-shrine at Tim'Na is one of the closest parallels to the Scriptural Tabernacles.
The people of Median are also mentioned in the Arabic Q'Ur'An. The word Mad'Yan appears 10 times in it. They are also called "Ash'Abu" meaning "Companions of the Wood."
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