As a name, Re'u-El is much clearer than Re'u (רעו), and may well help us to understand Re'u better. For the various roots see my notes to Re'u. As noted there, it is generally taken to mean "a friend", and here Re'u-El would therefore mean "a friend of the bull-god El". What kind of a person would be chosen as a friend of the chief god, and why? Presumably a sacred king, a shaman or priest, or a prophet. The tribal list that gives Re'u in Genesis 11 appears to be a genealogy of sacred kings from Shem to Av-Raham. Re'u-El himself first appears in Genesis 36:4 and 13 ff as a son of Esav; and given that "Esau is Edom", then here too we have a sacred king-name.
Exodus 2:18 and Numbers 10:29 have a Re'u-El (for some bizarre reason several English translations render his name as Raguel) who is the father-in-law of Mosheh. The priest of Midyan who took in the fugitive Mosheh, he had seven daughters, of whom he gave Mosheh Tsiporah (צפרה), the eldest, for a wife. However Exodus 3:1 ff says that he was named Yitro (Jethro - יתרו), and not Re'u-El. Numbers 10:29 also states that Re'u-El had a son named Hovav (הובב), while Judges 4:11 states that Hovav was Mosheh's father-in-law (rather than his brother-in-law, as in the Numbers reference).
Yitro has several meanings:
a) Yatar (יתר) = "to exceed" (also "to be redundant"), whence Yeter = the remainder.
b) Yeter (יתר) = "a cord" or "rope".
In addition to the Exodus reference, a Yitro appears in Judges 8:20, 1 Chronicles 2:32; 4:17 and 7:38. In 7:37 there is a variant Yitran (יתרן) who also appears in Genesis 36:26 and 1 Chronicles 1:41, and another variant Yitra (יתרא) appears in 2 Samuel 17:26 (or 25 in some texts). 2 Samuel 23:38 has Yitri (יתרי).
a) Yatar (יתר) = "to exceed" (also "to be redundant"), whence Yeter = the remainder.
b) Yeter (יתר) = "a cord" or "rope".
In addition to the Exodus reference, a Yitro appears in Judges 8:20, 1 Chronicles 2:32; 4:17 and 7:38. In 7:37 there is a variant Yitran (יתרן) who also appears in Genesis 36:26 and 1 Chronicles 1:41, and another variant Yitra (יתרא) appears in 2 Samuel 17:26 (or 25 in some texts). 2 Samuel 23:38 has Yitri (יתרי).
Hovav (הובב) means "beloved", from the root Chavav (חבב), a word that only appears once in the Tanach (Deuteronomy 33:3). Note that David has the same meaning, and "beloved" is a major epithet of the mother-goddess.
1 Chronicles 9:8 also mentions a Re'u-El, as does Numbers 2:14, though Gesenius believes this to be an error for De'u-El (דעואל) as in Numbers 1:14; 7:42 and 10:20; as so often, Gesenius presents a theory without any substantiating evidence, and in this case there is no Yehudit root that would yield De'u-El. Nevertheless, many English translations (including the two I have linked here) have picked up his suggestion and made the change.
Is Re'u-El, like Hovav, then an epithet for Yitro, or do we have two (or even three) different tribal legends being interwoven by the Biblical redactors? Or even more marriages, yielding more fathers-in-law, than we thought?
1 Chronicles 9:8 also mentions a Re'u-El, as does Numbers 2:14, though Gesenius believes this to be an error for De'u-El (דעואל) as in Numbers 1:14; 7:42 and 10:20; as so often, Gesenius presents a theory without any substantiating evidence, and in this case there is no Yehudit root that would yield De'u-El. Nevertheless, many English translations (including the two I have linked here) have picked up his suggestion and made the change.
Is Re'u-El, like Hovav, then an epithet for Yitro, or do we have two (or even three) different tribal legends being interwoven by the Biblical redactors? Or even more marriages, yielding more fathers-in-law, than we thought?
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