Bible Encyclopedias
Middin

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mid´in ( מדּין , middı̄n ; in GB , Αἰνών , Ainṓn , "springs"): One of the six cities in the wilderness of Judah ( Joshua 15:61 ). There are not many possible sites. The Hebrew name may possibly survive in Khirbet Mird , a very conspicuous site with many ancient cisterns overlooking the plateau el Bukea‛ , above which it towers to a height of 1,000 ft.; it is the Mons Mardes of early Christian pilgrims; the existing remains are Byzantine. It is a site of great natural strength and was clearly once a place of some importance. The Greek reading Ainōn , "place of springs," suggests the neighborhood of the extensive oasis of ‛Ain Feshkhah at the northwest corner of the Dead Sea where there are at Kh . Kumrâm remains of buildings and a rock-cut aqueduct. See PEF , III, 210, 212, Sh XVIII .