Then ^athe LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “^aSend men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel. From each of their fathers’ tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” 3 So Moses sent spies from the Wilderness of Paran at the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the Israelites. 4 These were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, ^aCaleb the son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, ^aHoshea that is, Joshua the son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Joseph, that is, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 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 (the LORD is salvation) .

17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into ^athe Negev (the South country) ; then go up into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many, 19 and whether the land in which they live is good or bad, and whether the cities in which they live are open camps or fortifications, 20 and ^awhat the land is, whether it is fat (productive) or lean, whether there is timber on it or not. Make an ^beffort to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

21 So they went up and spied out the land from ^athe Wilderness of Zin to Rehob a town in Lebanon, at ^bLebo-hamath in the far north. 22 When they had gone up into ^athe Negev (the South country) , they came to Hebron; and ^bAhiman, Sheshai, and Talmai the descendants of ^cAnak were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before ^dZoan in Egypt.)

23 Then they came to the Valley of ^aEshcol (cluster of grapes) , and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two of them, with some of pomegranates and the figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol (cluster of grapes) because of the cluster of grapes which the sons of Israel cut down there.

25 When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, 26 they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at ^aKadesh, and brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the land’s fruit. 27 They reported to Moses and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and ^ait certainly does ¹flow with milk and honey, and ^bthis is its fruit. 28 But ^athe people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are ¹fortified (walled) and very large; moreover, we saw there ^bthe descendants of Anak people of great stature and courage. 29 The people descended from Amalek live in the land of ^athe Negev (South country) ; the Hittite, the Jebusite, and ^bthe Amorite live in the hill country; and ^cthe Canaanites live by the Dead Sea and along the side of the Jordan.”

30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession of it; for we will certainly conquer it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “^aWe are not able to go up against the people of Canaan, for they are too strong for us.” 32 So they gave the Israelites ^aa bad report about the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we went, in spying it out, is ^ba land that devours its inhabitants. And ^call the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the ^aNephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and ^bwe were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”