על שינוי השמות י״חOn the Change of Names 18
א׳
1[106] I have stated the sum of the matter, Moses will shew us the proofs. In the first place he describes him as one who honours judgement and justice. For the word Midian when translated appears as “from judgement or sifting.” This has a twofold significance. It means in one sense sifting out and sifting off, which we often see in the case of those who enter for the so-called sacred games. For thousands of these who have been judged to be unfit have been known to be sifted out by the stewards.
ב׳
2[107] Midianites, in this sense, initiated in the unholy rites of Baal Peor (Num. 25:3), and widening all the orifices of the body to receive the streams which pour in from outside (for the meaning of Baal Peor is “mouth of skin above ”), flood the ruling mind and sink it to the lowest depths, so that it cannot float up to the top or rise ever so little.
ג׳
3[108] And this was its condition until the Man of Peace, an evident priest of God, Phinehas (ibid. 12, 13), came a self-bidden champion. He is a hater of evil by nature and possessed by zeal for the good. And when he took the lance, that is the sharp-edged word, able to probe and explore each thing, power was granted him, that duped by none and armed with mighty strength he should pierce passion through the womb, that it should henceforth bring to birth no plague of God’s sending (ibid. 7, 8).
ד׳
4[109] It is against these Midianites that the nation of vision sets on foot the greatest of wars in which none of their combatants was “lost” (Num. 31:49), but returned safe and unwounded, crowned with the garlands of victory.