Bible Strands
Numbers 10:30
“I will not go,” Hobab replied. “Instead, I am going back to my own land and my own people.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Hobab, the Midianite son of Reuel, responds to Moses’ invitation as the Israelites prepare to depart Sinai.
The words — The supplied Hebrew לֹא אֵלֵךְ (lo' 'elekh) literally renders “I will not go,” while אַרְצִי ('ar'tzi) translates “my own land.”
The thread — The pattern of departing for or returning to one’s native territory and kinship runs through Genesis 12:1, Genesis 31:30, and Ruth 1:15.
Why it lands — The text records a direct refusal to join the covenant community’s journey in favor of preserving tribal and geographic ties. The verse demands a reader to confront the cost of loyalty to one’s original homeland when called to a new divine assignment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Genesis 31:30 Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
- Ruth 1:15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.”
- Psalms 45:10 Listen, O daughter! Consider and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house,
- Matthew 21:29 ‘I will not,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went.
- Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.
- 2 Corinthians 5:16 So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
- 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.
- 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 earth.