Skip to content
mannafest.faith

Numbers 10:30

in Numbers 10

“I will not go,” Hobab replied. “Instead, I am going back to my own land and my own people.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred.

KJV

And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred.

This verse in Numbers 10

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
And he said unto him, I will not go,.... Which was a very peremptory answer, he seemed determined, and at a point about it for the present, though it is, probable he afterwards changed his mind, like the young man in the parable, Mat 21:29, but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred; which were prevailing motives with him, his native country, his relations, and father's house; to this resolution he came, both because of his substance, and because of his family, as Jarchi.

This site's exposition

Then Moses said to Hobab

on Numbers 10:29-30

Who Hobab is has long been argued, since the Hebrew word for father-in-law covers several relations by marriage. Moses urges, “Come with us, and we will treat you well,” and Hobab refuses for “my own land and my own people.”

This site's exposition

I am going back to my own land and my own people

Matthew Henry notes the Midianites came from Abraham through Keturah, so Hobab was of Abraham's line and still turned homeward. Gill likens his refusal to the son at Matthew 21:29 who said he would not go and later changed his mind and went. Clarke holds that Hobab changed his mind.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

But his refusal must be imputed to the affection he had for his native air and soil, which was not overpowered, as it ought to have been, by a believing regard to the promise of God and a value for covenant blessings. He was indeed a son of Abraham's loins (for the Midianites descended from Abraham by Keturah), but not an heir of Abraham's faith ( Heb. xi.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred - From the strong expostulations in Num 10:31 and Num 10:32, and from Jdg 1:16; Jdg 4:11, and 1Sa 15:6, it is likely that Hobab changed his mind; or that, if he did go back to Midian, he returned again to Israel, as the above scriptures show that his posterity dwelt among the Israelites in Canaan.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֥אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • אֵלָ֖יוto him

    ʾelavH413 →5510 times

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • אֵלֵ֑ךְI will go

    ʾelekhH1980 →1546 times

  • כִּ֧יthat

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • אִם־except

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • אַרְצִ֛יown land my

    ʾartziH776 →2504 times

  • וְאֶל־and to

    veel-H413 →5510 times

  • מוֹלַדְתִּ֖יkindred my

    moladtiH4138 →

  • אֵלֵֽךְ׃I will go

    ʾelekhH1980 →1546 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 45:10

    Listen, O daughter! Consider and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house,

    it leads to

    • Song of Solomon 2:10–13

      My beloved calls to me, “Arise, my darling. Come away with me, my beautiful one.

    • Genesis 12:1

      Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

    • Matthew 10:37

      Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;

    • Matthew 19:29

      And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal…

    • 2 Corinthians 6:17

      “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

  • Through

    Hebrews 11:8

    By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.

    it leads to

    • Acts 7:2–4

      And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

    • Genesis 12:1–4

      Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

  • Through

    Hebrews 11:13

    All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the…

    it leads to

    • Genesis 23:4

      “I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.”

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.
The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.