And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are journeying unto the place of which the LORD said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the LORD hath spoken good concerning Israel.
Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite - called also Reuel, the same as Jethro (see the note at Exodus 2:18) х Rª`uw'eel (H7467); Septuagint, Ragoueel]. The English translators of Exodus followed the Masoretic punctuation, while in this passage of Numbers the text of the Septuagint seems to have been adopted. Hobab, the son of this Midianite chief, and brother-in-law to Moses, seems to have sojourned among the Israelites during the whole period of their encampment at Sinai, and now on their removal proposed returning to his own abode. Moses urged him to remain, both for his own benefit, in a religious point of view, and from the useful services his nomad habits could enable him to render.