Difference between revisions of "Raguel"

<p> ("friend of God.") </p> <p> '''1.''' Prince priest of Midian; father of Zipporah, Moses' wife, and of Jethro and Hobab. (See [[Jethro]] ; HOBAB.) (&nbsp;Exodus 2:21; &nbsp;Exodus 3:1; &nbsp;Numbers 10:29). The older tradition, and the insecurity from [[Egyptian]] power which Moses would have been exposed to in the W. of the Elanitic gulf, favor the view that [[Raguel]] lived on the coast E. of the Elanitic gulf. </p> <p> '''2.''' &nbsp;Genesis 36:4. </p>

<p> &nbsp;Numbers 10:29 , or REUEL, &nbsp;Exodus 2:15,18,21 , the [[Hebrew]] word being the same in both places. These passages represent him as the father of [[Hobab]] and Zipporah, and he is generally supposed to be the same as Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. Some, however, think he was Jethro's father, and that he is called the father of the others as being the head of the family. Compare &nbsp;Genesis 31:43 &nbsp; 2 Kings 14:3 &nbsp; 16:2 . </p>

<p> (Heb. רְעוּאֵל; Sept. ῾Ραγουήλ ), a less correct Anglicism of the name REUEL (See Reuel) (q.v.). </p> <p> '''1.''' A prince-priest of Midian, the father of Zipporah, according to Exodus ii, 21, and of Hobab according to &nbsp;Numbers 10:29. As the father-in-law of Moses is named Jethro in &nbsp;Exodus 3:1, and Hobab in &nbsp;Judges 4:11, and perhaps in &nbsp;Numbers 10:29 (though the latter passage admits of another sense), the ''Prima-Facie'' view would be that Raguel, Jethro, and Hobab were different names for the same individual. Such is probably the case with regard to the two first, at all events, if not with the third. (See Hobab). </p> <p> One of the names may represent an official title, but whether Jethro or Raguel is uncertain, both being appropriately significant (Jethro "pre-eminent," from יתר, "to excel," and Raguel= "friend of God," from רְעוּ אֵל ). [[Josephus]] was in favor of the former (τουτο, i.e. Ι᾿εθεγλαῖος, ην ἐπίκλημα τῷ ῾Ραγουήλῳ, ''Ant.'' ii, 12, 1), and this is not unlikely, as the name Reuel was not an uncommon one. The identity of Jethro and Reuel is supported by the indiscriminate use of the names in the Sept. (&nbsp;Exodus 2:16; &nbsp;Exodus 2:18); and the application of more than one name to the same individual was a usage familiar to the Hebrews, as instanced in Jacob and Israel, [[Solomon]] anti Jedidiah, and other similar cases. Another solution of the difficulty has been sought in the loose use of terms of relationship among the Hebrews; as that chothen (חֹתֵן ) in &nbsp;Exodus 3:1; &nbsp;Exodus 18:1; &nbsp;Numbers 10:29, may signify any relation by marriage, and consequently that Jethro and Hobab were brothers-in-law of Moses; or that the terms arb (אָב ) and [[Bath]] (בִּת ) in &nbsp;Exodus 2:16; &nbsp;Exodus 2:21, mean ''Grandfatther'' and ''Grandtdauughter.'' Neither of these assumptions is satisfactory, the former in the absence of any corroborative evidence, the latter because the omission of Jethro, the father's name, in so circumstantial a narrative as in Exodus ii, is inexplicable; nor can we conceive the indiscriminate use of the terms father and grandfather without good cause. Nevertheless, this view has a strong mweight of authority in its favor, being supported by the [[Targum]] Jonathan, Aben-Ezra, Michaelis, Winer, and others. SEE JETHRO </p> <p> 2. Another transcription of the name REUEL, occurring in Tobit, where Raguel, a pious Jew of Ecbatane. a city of Media, is father of Sara, the wife of Tobias (Tobias 3:7, 17, etc.). The name was not uncommon. and in the book of [[Enoch]] it is applied to one of the great guardian angels of the universe, who was charged with the execution of the divine judgments on the (material) world and the stars (20:4; 23:4, ed. Dillmann). </p>