Raguel
Friend of God, ( Num. 10:29 )=Reuel (q.v.), Ex. 2:18 , the father-in-law of Moses, and probably identical with Jethro (q.v.).
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Matthew George Easton
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition (1897) · 3,964 entries on site
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Refuge, Cities of
Were six in number ( Num. 35 ). 1. On the west of Jordan were (1) Kadesh, in Naphtali; (2) Shechem, in Mount Ephraim; (3) Hebron, in Judah. 2. On the east of Jordan were, (1) Golan, in Bashan; (2) Ramoth-Gilead, in Gad; and (3) Bezer, in Reuben. (See under each of these names.)
Reuben
Behold a son!, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah ( Gen. 29:32 ). His sinful conduct, referred to in Gen. 35:22 , brought down upon him his dying father’s malediction (48:4). He showed kindness to Joseph, and was the means of saving his life when his other brothers would have put him to death (37:21, 22). It was he also who pledged his life and the life of his sons when Jacob was unwilling to let Benjamin go down into Egypt. After Jacob and his family went down into Egypt (46:8) no further mention is made of Reuben beyond what is recorded in ch. 49:3, 4.
Reuben, Tribe of
At the Exodus numbered 46,500 male adults, from twenty years old and upwards ( Num. 1:20 , 21 ), and at the close of the wilderness wanderings they numbered only 43,730 (26:7). This tribe united with that of Gad in asking permission to settle in the “land of Gilead,” “on the other side of Jordan” (32:1-5). The lot assigned to Reuben was the smallest of the lots given to the trans-Jordanic tribes. It extended from the Arnon, in the south along the coast of the Dead Sea to its northern end, where the Jordan flows into it ( Josh. 13:15-21 , 23 ). It thus embraced the original kingdom of Sihon. Reuben is “to the eastern tribes what Simeon is to the western. ‘Unstable as water,’ he vanishes away into a mere Arabian tribe. ‘His men are few;’ it is all he can do ‘to live and not die.’ We hear of nothing beyond the multiplication of their cattle in the land of Gilead, their spoils of ‘camels fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand’ ( 1 Chr. 5:9 , 10 , 20 , 21 ). In the great struggles of the nation he never took part. The complaint against him in the song of Deborah is the summary of his whole history. ‘By the streams of Reuben,’ i.e., by the fresh streams which descend from the eastern hills into the Jordan and the Dead Sea, on whose banks the Bedouin chiefs met then as now to debate, in the ‘streams’ of Reuben great were the ‘desires’”, i.e., resolutions which were never carried out, the people idly resting among their flocks as if it were a time of peace ( Judg. 5:15 , 16 ). Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine. All the three tribes on the east of Jordan at length fell into complete apostasy, and the time of retribution came. God “stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria,” to carry them away, the first of the tribes, into captivity ( 1 Chr. 5:25 , 26 ).
Reuel
Friend of God. (1.) A son of Esau and Bashemath ( Gen. 36:4 , 10 ; 1 Chr. 1:35 ). (2.) “The priest of Midian,” Moses’ father-in-law ( Ex. 2:18 )=Raguel ( Num. 10:29 ). If he be identified with Jethro (q.v.), then this may be regarded as his proper name, and Jether or Jethro (i.e., “excellency”) as his official title. (3.) Num. 2:14 , called also Deuel (1:14; 7:42).
Rizpah
Coal; hot stone, the daughter of Aiah, and one of Saul’s concubines. She was the mother of Armoni and Mephibosheth ( 2 Sam. 3:7 ; 21:8 , 10 , 11 ). It happened that a grievous famine, which lasted for three years, fell upon the land during the earlier half of David’s reign at Jerusalem. This calamity was sent “for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.” David inquired of the Gibeonites what satisfaction they demanded, and was answered that nothing would compensate for the wrong Saul had done to them but the death of seven of Saul’s sons. David accordingly delivered up to them the two sons of Rizpah and five of the sons of Merab (q.v.), Saul’s eldest daughter, whom she bore to Adriel. These the Gibeonites put to death, and hung up their bodies before the Lord at the sanctuary at Gibeah. Rizpah thereupon took her place on the rock of Gibeah (q.v.), and for five months watched the suspended bodies of her children, to prevent them from being devoured by the beasts and birds of prey, till they were at length taken down and buried by David. Her marriage to Abner was the occasion of a quarrel between him and Ishbosheth, which led to Abner’s going over to the side of David ( 2 Sam. 3:17-21 ).