Numbers 10:31

31 And Moses said, Do not thou forsake us, for thou knowest in which places we ought to set tents (for thou knowest where it is best for us to pitch our tents), and thou shalt be our leader;

Numbers 10:31 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 10:31

And he said
That is, Moses, he replied to Hobab, unwilling to take him at his word and go without him:

leave us not, I pray thee;
or "not now"; as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; at this present time, under our present difficulties, while we are in the wilderness; though Jarchi says the particle (an) signifies beseeching or supplication:

forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness;
that this will be our case, that we shall be obliged, before we get to the promised land, to pitch our tents in the wilderness, in our passage through it; and thou knowest which are the best and most convenient places for that purpose, and therefore must entreat thee to go with us:

and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes;
not to show the way, as Aben Ezra notes, or guide and direct them in the road through the wilderness; for the cloud by day and the fire by night were of that use to them, as well as when it rested, it directed them when and where to pitch their tents; rather to assist with his advice in difficult matters, when they should be in pressing circumstances: the Targum of Jonathan is,

``thou hast been dear unto us, as the apple of our eyes, and therefore we cannot part with thee.''

Numbers 10:31 In-Context

29 And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Raguel, of Midian, his ally, either, (that is, the) father of his wife, We (shall) go forth to the place which the Lord shall give to us; come thou with us, that we do well to thee (come thou with us, and we shall treat thee well), for the Lord [hath] promised good things to Israel.

30 To whom he answered, I shall not go with thee, but I shall turn again into my land, in which I was born. (To whom he answered, I shall not go with thee, but I shall return to my own land, where I was born.)

31 And Moses said, Do not thou forsake us, for thou knowest in which places we ought to set tents (for thou knowest where it is best for us to pitch our tents), and thou shalt be our leader;

32 and when thou shalt come with us, whatever thing shall be (the) best of the riches that the Lord shall give to us, we shall give to thee.

33 And therefore they went forth from the hill of the Lord the way of three days; and the ark of the bond of peace of the Lord went before them, by those three days, and purveyed the places of their tents. (And so they went forth from Mount Sinai, the Lord's mountain, the way of three days; and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, that is, the Ark of the Witnessing, always went ahead of them, to find a good place for their tents.)