The Hebrew Bible records that Moses invited Hobab his father-in-law to travel with Israel, and Hobab refused. The Targum Jonathan expands this exchange into a deeply personal plea and adds details about the Ark's supernatural scouting abilities, Satan's vulnerability to trumpets, and a prayer tradition still echoed in synagogues today.
Two silver trumpets were forged from solid metal by an artisan. Their purpose was dual: assembling the congregation and signaling the order of march. The Targum adds a striking detail about the shofar-like alarm blown before battle: "the remembrance of you may come up for good before the Lord your God, that you may be delivered from your enemies." At festivals and new moons, the blast served a different purpose: "Satana shall be troubled at the sound of your jubel notes." The trumpets did not just summon people. They rattled the Accuser.
When the camp departed Sinai, the Ark went ahead by thirty-six miles—a full day's journey—"to provide for them a place to encamp." The Ark was an advance scout, traveling ahead of the nation, clearing the way through hostile wilderness.
Moses begged Hobab to stay: "When we were encamped in the wilderness, thou knewest how to judge, and didst teach us the method of judgment, and thou art dear to us as the apple of our eyes." This intimacy—a Midianite called the apple of Israel's eye—does not appear in the Hebrew text.
When the Ark moved forward, Moses would pray: "Let the Word of the Lord be now revealed in the power of Your anger, that the adversaries of Your people may be scattered." When the Ark rested, he prayed: "Return now, O Word of the Lord, in the goodness of Your mercy, and let the glory of Your Shekinah (the Divine Presence) dwell among them." These two prayers—one for departure, one for arrival—became the liturgical framework for opening and closing the Torah ark in every synagogue.