Hobab
Ho'bab (Heb. Chobab', חֹבָב, beloved; Sept. Ο᾿βάβ, in Judges Ι᾿ωβάβ), the son of Raguel the Midianite, a kinsman of Moses (Nu 10:29; Jg 4:11). B.C. 1657. He has usually been identified with Jethro (see Ex 18:5,27, compared with Nu 10:29-30); but it is rather his father Reuel to whom the title "Moses's father-in-law" is intended to apply in Nu 10:29; for that these two latter were' names of the same person, and that the father of Moses's wife, seems clear from Ex 2:6,21; Ex 3:1. Hence Hobab was Moses's brother-in-law (and so we must render חֹתֵן in Jg 4:11, where the Auth.Vers. has "father-in-law," being, it is true, the same applied elsewhere to Jethro, but merely signifying any male relative by marriage, and rendered even "son- in-law" in Ge 19:14); so that while Jethro (as was natural for a person of his advanced age) returned to his home (Ex 18:27), Moses prevailed upon Hobab (whose comparative youth rendered his services the greater object to secure) to remain (as. seems implied by the absence of any refusal to his second importunity in Nu 10:32), so that we find his descendants among the Israelites (Jg 4:11). SEE JETHRO.
