John Calvin Commentary Numbers 10:29

"And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses` father-in-law, We are journeying unto the place of which Jehovah said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for Jehovah hath spoken good concerning Israel." — Numbers 10:29 (ASV)

And Moses said unto Hobab the son of Raguel. Those are very seriously mistaken who have assumed Hobab⁷ to be Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, who, as we have already seen, had returned home a few days after he came to visit him. Now, old age, almost in a state of decrepitude, would have been poorly suited for, or unequal to, such difficult labors. Moses was now eighty years old, and much younger than his father-in-law. But all doubt is removed by Judges 4, where we read that the descendants of Hobab were still surviving in the land of Canaan.

Therefore, when the good old man (Jethro) went home, he left his son Hobab—still in the prime of life, and to whom, because of his familiarity with the region, the desert country was well known—as a companion for his son-in-law, who could be useful to him in performing many services.

Here, however, whether tired by delay and difficulties, offended by the malicious and perverse spirit of the people, or preferring his home and a settled life to those prolonged wanderings, Hobab desired to follow his father. However, so that we might know that he had not sought his dismissal as a mere pretense (as is often the case),⁸ Moses expressly states that he could not immediately persuade him to stay with his entreaties; indeed, Hobab was not attracted by the promises with which Moses endeavored to tempt him, until he had been persistently pleaded with.

Although the expectation of the promised land was set before him, yet, since mention is only made of temporal and transient prosperity, it may therefore be probably conjectured that he had not benefited from his opportunities as he should have. He had seen and heard the signs of God’s awesome power when the Law was given; yet Moses urged him to accompany them with no other argument than that he would enjoy the riches of the land.

Perhaps Moses desired to give him some taste of God's graciousness and fatherly love, as manifested in the temporal blessing, in order to lift his mind to higher things. Still, Moses merely referred to God's promise and then assured Hobab that he would share in all their good things. Nevertheless, this alone is no small matter: that he should be attracted not by an uncertain hope, but by the sure enjoyment of those good things which God, who cannot lie, had promised. For deceptive allurements often invite people to undergo labors and encounter perils; but Moses presented God, so to speak, as his guarantor, inasmuch as He had promised that He would give the people a fertile land, full of an abundance of all good things.

In any case, Hobab represents to us, as in a mirror, the innate disposition of the entire human race to long for what it apprehends by the carnal sense. It is natural to prefer our own country, however barren and wretched, to other lands, even the most fertile and delightful; thus, the Ithaca of Ulysses has passed into a proverb.⁹ But let me now reprove another fault, namely, that, generally speaking, all people set their affections on this present life: thus, Hobab despises God's promise and holds fast to the love of his native land.

⁷ So De Lyra, S.M., Fagius, Tostatus, the 70, etc. See note on Fagius, Tostatus, the 70, etc. See note on Exodus 2:18, , ante, vol. 1, p. 54..

⁸ “(Comme il adviendra souventes fois que les hommes font des rencheris);” as it will often happen that people want to be pressed to stay. — Fr.

⁹ “Comme l’isle en laquelle Ulysses estoit ne, n’estant qu’une poure isle, voire quasi semblable a un rocher, est venue en un proverbe;” thus the island in which Ulysses was born, being but a poor island, indeed almost like a rock, has passed into a proverb. — Fr. See Cicero See Cicero De Orat., 1:44, and 1:44, and De Legg., 2:1.2:1.