Numbers 10

The cloud lifting was a signal that it was time to break camp and move on. It was late in the spring. The month is called Iyar, and it usually falls between April and May. In the time of Moses, the Israelites followed a lunar calendar, with every month starting at the first tiny crescent after the new moon. A new moon is when the moon is hidden behind earth’s shadow for one day. The sun, moon, and earth are aligned, with earth in the middle.

Wherever the Paran Desert was, it seems to have been no more than a few days away from Mount Sinai. The Israelites got there during a single excursion. Scholars generally say the desert was north of Mount Sinai and south of Israel’s Negev badlands. Some scholars say its eastern border was the rift valley, which is a huge rip in the earth’s crust, from the Dead Sea southward to the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba.

See Numbers 4:1-16.

It’s uncertain who Hobab was. Bible writers seem to offer three names for the father-in-law of Moses. He’s Jethro in Exodus 3:1; 18:2 and elsewhere. He’s Hobab here. And he’s Reuel in Exodus 2:18, 21. Scholars try to solve the mystery with theories. For example: Reuel may have been the name of Jethro’s tribe. And Hobab may have been a brother-in-law of Moses. The phrasing is vague enough to make that a possibility. But if Hobab is the brother-in-law, he’s suddenly and only momentarily popping up out of nowhere just in time to get this invitation. On the other hand, the father-in-law is on the record as visiting Moses at the Sinai camp (Exodus 18). Some scholars say the source of the confusion may have been the work of an editor pulling together stories from different sources. One theory is that an early source called the man Jethro sometimes and Hobab other times. And they speculate that Reuel came later because of the confused way that name shows up here. In other words, an editor picked it up here and presumed the “Reuel” referred to the father-in-law. Educated guesses are the best solution to this mystery so far. Sorry about that.

Midian was a nation along the northeast bank of the Red Sea, in what is now northwestern Saudi Arabia.

The writer never tells us if Hobab accepted the invitation. But many scholars say they presume he did, since the next verse says they all left and the writer never mentions Hobab peeling off in another direction. Yet, that’s another uncertain presumption.

Mount Sinai, also known as Horeb. This is where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-13).

Also known as the Ark of the Covenant, a gold-plated box that held the Ten Commandments. It represented the presence of God among the Israelites, traveling with them and, in this case, ahead of them.