The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Numbers 13
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Send men, that they may spy out the
landofCanaan, whichI give to the children
of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers,
you shall send a man, every one a prince
among them.”
3 Moses sentthemfromthe wilderness of
Paran according to the commandment of
Yahweh. All of them were men who were
heads of the children of Israel.
4 These were their names:
Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son
of Zaccur.
5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of
Hori.
6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of
Jephunneh.
7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of
Joseph.
8O fthe tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of
Nun.
9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of
Raphu.
10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son
of Sodi.
11 Of the tribe of Joseph, of the tribe of
Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.
12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of
Gemalli.
13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of
Michael.
14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of
Vophsi.
15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of
Machi.
16 These are the names of the men who
Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses
called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land
of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this
way by the South, and go up into the hill
country
18 See the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein,
whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
19 and what the land is that they dwell in,
whether it is good or bad; and what cities
they are that they dwell in, whether in
camps, or in strongholds;
20 and what the land is, whether it is fertile
or poor, whether there is wood therein, or
not. Be courageous, and bring some of the
fruit of the land.” Now the time was the
time of the first-ripe grapes.
21 So they wentup, andspiedoutthe land
from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the
entrance of Hamath.
22 They went up by the South, and came
to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there.
(Now Hebron was built seven years before
Zoan in Egypt.)
23 They came to the valley of Eshcol, and
cut down from there a branch with one
cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff
between two. They also brought some of
the pomegranates and figs.
24 That place was called the valley of
Eshcol, because of the cluster which the
children of Israel cut down from there.
25 They returned from spying out the
land at the end of forty days.
26 They went and came to Moses, to
Aaron, and to all the congregation of the
children of Israel, to the wilderness of
Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word
to them and to all the congregation. They
showed them the fruit of the land.
27 They told him, and said, “We came to
the land where you sent us. Surely it flows
with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
28 However, the people who dwell in the
land are strong, and the cities are fortified
and very large. Moreover, we saw the
children of Anak there.
29 Amalek dwells inthe land ofthe South.
The Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite
dwell in the hill country. The Canaanite
dwells by the sea, and along the side of the
Jordan.”
30 Caleb stilled the people before Moses,
and said, “Let’s go up at once, and possess
it; for we are well able to overcome it!”
31 But the men who went up with him
said, “We aren’t able to go up against the
people; for they are stronger than we.”
32 They brought up an evil report of the
land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying,
“The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land
that eats up its inhabitants; and all the
people who we saw in it are men of great
stature.
33 There we saw the Nephilim,† the sons
of Anak, who come from the Nephilim.‡
We were in our own sight as grasshoppers,
and so we were in their sight.”