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Bible Encyclopedias
Hobab
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Ho´bab, kinsman of Moses and priest or prince of Midian, a tract of country in Arabia Petræa, on the eastern border of the Red Sea, at no great distance from Mount Sinai. The family of this individual seems to have observed the worship of the true God in common with the Hebrews ().
Considerable difficulty has been felt in determining who this person was, as well as his exact relation to Moses; for the word, which, in , , , is translated father-in-law, and in , son-in-law, is a term of indeterminate signification, denoting simply relationship by marriage; and besides, the transaction which in one place () is related of Jethro, is in another related of Hobab. The probability is, that as forty years had elapsed since Moses' connection with this family was formed, his father-in-law () Reuel or Raguel (the same word in the original is used in both places) was dead, or confined to his tent by the infirmities of age, and that the person who visited Moses at the foot of Sinai was his brother-in-law, called Hobab in ,; Jethro in; and the Kenite in .
About a year after the Exodus he paid a visit to Moses, while the Hebrew camp was lying in the environs of Sinai, bringing with him Zipporah, Moses' wife, who, together with her two sons, had been left with her family while her husband was absent on his embassy to Pharaoh. The interview was on both sides affectionate, and was celebrated first by the solemn rites of religion, and afterwards by festivities, of which Aaron and the elders of Israel were invited to partake. On the following day, observing Moses incessantly occupied in deciding causes that were submitted to him for judgment, his experienced kinsman remonstrated with him on the speedy exhaustion which a perseverance in such arduous labors would superinduce; and in order to relieve himself, as well as secure a due attention to every case, he urged Moses to appoint a number of subordinate officers to divide with him the duty of the judicial tribunals, with power to decide in all common affairs, while the weightier and more serious matters were reserved to himself. This wise suggestion the Hebrew legislator adopted (Exodus 18).
When the Hebrews were preparing to decamp from Sinai, the kinsman of Moses announced his intention to return to his own territory; but if he did carry that purpose into execution, it was in opposition to the urgent solicitations of the Jewish leader, who entreated him, for his own advantage, to cast in his lot with the people of God; at all events to continue with them, and afford them the benefit of his thorough acquaintance with the wilderness. 'Leave us not, I pray thee,' said Moses, 'forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes;' in other words, that Hobab might perform the office of a hybeer or guide [CARAVAN]—his influence as an Arab chief, his knowledge of the routes, the situation of the wells, the places for fuel, the prognostics of the weather, and the most eligible stations for encamping, rendering him peculiarly qualified to act in that important capacity. It is true that God was their leader, by the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, the advancement or the halting of which regulated their journeys and fixed their encampments. But beyond these general directions the tokens of their heavenly guide did not extend. And as smaller parties were frequently sallying forth from the main body in quest of forage and other necessaries, which human observation or enterprise was sufficient to provide, so Moses discovered his wisdom and good sense in enlisting the aid of a native sheik, who, from his family connection with himself, his powerful influence, and his long experience, promised to render the Israelites most important services.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Hobab'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/h/hobab.html.
