Deuel

DEUEL (dū'ĕl). A Gadite, father of Eliasaph, prince of Gad in the wilderness just after the Exodus from Egypt (Num.1.14; Num.7.47; Num.10.20). In Num.2.14 most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text read “Reuel.”

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DEUEL dōō’ əl (דְּעוּאֵֽל, meaning God knows). The fame of Deuel is in his son Eliasaph (אֶלְיָסָ֖ף “God has added”). When Moses and Aaron would take a census of the people at Sinai, Eliasaph, son of Deuel, was with them to record the male Gadites of twenty years old and up, 45,650 (Num 1:14; 2:14). When the Tabernacle was complete Eliasaph brought the large donation of a tribal leader on the seventh of twelve days (7:42, 47). He, then, was leader of Gad’s host (1:24, 25).

Once in these Heb. references the name is spelled Reuel (רְעוּאֵֽל God is friend), also the name of four others. In the LXX it is always with an R. The Heb. ד and ר are easily mistaken for each other.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

du’-el, de-u’-el de`u’el, ("knowledge of God"): A Gadite, the father of Eliasaph, the representative of the tribe of Gad in the census-taking (Nu 1:14), in making the offering of the tribe at the dedication of the altar (Nu 7:42,47), and as leader of the host of the tribe of the children of Gad in the wilderness (Nu 10:20). Called Reuel in Nu 2:14, daleth (d) being confused with resh (r).