Then aYahweh spoke to Moses saying,Deut 1:22, 23 2 “aSend out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.”Deut 1:22; 9:23 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the 1command of Yahweh, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel.Lit mouth 4 These then were their names:
16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called aHoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.Num 13:8; Deut 32:44
17 So Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up 1there into athe 2Negev; then go up into the hill country.Lit hereSouth country, so in chGen 12:9; 13:1, 3 18 And see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. 19 And how is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they 1like open camps or with fortifications?Lit in 20 aAnd how is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? 1Make an beffort then to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.Lit Use your strengthDeut 1:24, 25Deut 31:6, 23
21 So they went up and spied out the land from athe wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, 1bat Lebo-hamath.Or to the entrance of HamathNum 20:1; 27:14; 33:36Josh 13:5 22 And they had gone up into athe Negev and 1came to Hebron where bAhiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the 2descendants of cAnak were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before dZoan in Egypt.)Lit one came; some mss they cameLit childrenNum 13:17Josh 15:14Num 13:28, 33Ps 78:12, 43
23 Then they came to the 1valley of 2aEshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men with some of the pomegranates and the figs.Or wadiLit clusterGen 14:13; Num 13:24; 32:9; Deut 1:24 24 That place was called the valley of 1Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut down from there.Lit cluster
25 Then they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, 26 and went and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel 1in the wilderness of Paran, at aKadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.Lit toNum 20:1, 14; 32:8 27 Thus they recounted to him and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and ait certainly does flow with milk and honey, and bthis is its fruit.Ex 3:8, 17; 13:5Deut 1:25 28 Nevertheless, athe people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw bthe 1descendants of Anak there.Lit born onesDeut 1:28; 9:1, 2Num 13:33 29 Amalek is living in the land of athe Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and bthe Amorites are living in the hill country, and cthe Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”Num 13:17; 14:25, 45Josh 10:6Num 14:43, 45
30 Then Caleb quieted the people 1before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we are surely able to overcome it.”Lit toward 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “aWe are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”Deut 1:28; 9:1-3 32 So they gave out to the sons of Israel aa bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land, which we have passed through to spy out on, is ba land that devours its 1inhabitants; and call the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.Or settlersNum 14:36, 37; Ps 106:24Ezek 36:13, 14Amos 2:9 33 There also we saw the aNephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and bwe became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”Gen 6:4Deut 1:28; 9:2; Josh 11:21