Numbers 13

The LORD spoke to Moses and said,

1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

NoteIn the King James Version "LORD" printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants (YHWH). Ordinary "Lord" translates a different Hebrew word meaning "master."

2"Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the people of Israel. Send one man from each of their family tribes, and each man must be a leader among his people."

2Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

NoteCanaan is the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, roughly modern Israel and the Palestinian territories, together with parts of Lebanon and southwestern Syria. The King James "search the land" means survey or scout it, not hunt through it.

3So Moses sent them out from the desert of Paran, just as the LORD had told him to. All of those men were leaders among the people of Israel.

3And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.

NoteParan is a desert region in the north-eastern Sinai peninsula, between Mount Sinai and the southern edge of Canaan.

4These were their names. From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur.

4And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.

5From the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori.

5Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.

6From the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh.

6Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

7From the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph.

7Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

8From the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea son of Nun.

8Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.

9From the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu.

9Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.

10From the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi.

10Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.

11From the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi.

11Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.

NoteJoseph had no tribe under his own name. His two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, each headed a tribe, so "the tribe of Joseph" needs the clarification that Manasseh is meant (Ephraim was already listed in verse 8). With the tribe of Levi left out of these lists (Levites had duties at the sanctuary and no territory of their own) the count still comes to twelve.

12From the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli.

12Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

13From the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael.

13Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.

14From the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi.

14Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.

15From the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.

15Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

16These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. And Moses gave Oshea son of Nun the new name Jehoshua.

16These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.

NoteBoth names are Hebrew sentences. Oshea (usually spelled Hoshea) means "he saves"; Jehoshua, the name normally spelled Joshua in English, adds the divine name, so it means "the LORD saves." The King James uses the older transliterations here, which is why the same man appears under two unfamiliar spellings.

17Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan, and he told them, "Go up this way through the dry southern country, and then go up into the hill country.

17And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:

Note"Southward" translates the Hebrew word Negev, which is the name of a specific dry region south of the Canaanite hill country, not simply a compass direction. "The mountain" means the central highland ridge running north from there, hill country, not a single peak.

18Look at the land and see what it is like. See whether the people who live there are strong or weak, and whether there are few of them or many.

18And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;

19See whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they live in are open camps or walled forts.

19And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;

20See whether the soil is rich or poor, and whether there are trees growing there or not. Be brave, and bring back some of the fruit of the land." It was the season when the first grapes ripen.

20And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.

NoteThe first grapes ripen around midsummer, in July, so the mission set out at the point in the year when the season's produce was just becoming available as evidence.

21So they went up and explored the land, from the desert of Zin all the way to Rehob, near the pass that leads to Hamath.

21So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.

NoteZin is the desert at the southern edge of Canaan; Rehob and the approach to Hamath lie far to the north, near the Lebanon valley. Naming the two extremes is a way of saying they covered the length of the whole land.

22They went up through the dry southern country and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, who were descended from Anak, lived there. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt was built.)

22And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

NoteHebron is a town in the southern hill country, about nineteen miles south of the site of Jerusalem. Anak is remembered in these texts as the ancestor of a people of unusual height, the Anakim. Zoan is the Egyptian city the Greeks called Tanis, in the Nile delta; anyone who had lived in Egypt would know how old it was, so dating Hebron by it tells the reader Hebron is an ancient place.

23They came to the valley of Eshcol, and there they cut off a branch with a single cluster of grapes on it. Two of them carried it on a pole between them. They also brought back pomegranates and figs.

23And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.

NoteThe King James "brook" translates a word for a wadi, a valley with a stream that runs in the rainy season and is often dry the rest of the year. Grapes, pomegranates and figs were the standard fruit crops of the region, so the sample is a summary of what the land produces.

24That place was called the valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the people of Israel cut down there.

24The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

NoteThe point of the sentence is a pun that only works in Hebrew: eshkol is the ordinary word for a cluster of grapes.

25After forty days they came back from exploring the land.

25And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

26They came to Moses and Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the desert of Paran at Kadesh. They gave their report to Moses and to the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land.

26And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.

NoteKadesh, often called Kadesh-barnea, is a large oasis on the southern edge of the settled land, roughly fifty miles south of Beersheba. It served as the Israelites' base for a long stretch of the wilderness period.

27This is what they told him: "We went into the land you sent us to, and it really does flow with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit.

27And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

Note"Flowing with milk and honey" is a stock phrase for a fertile country. Milk stands for pasture good enough to keep herds and flocks; honey means wild honey, and possibly also the thick syrup boiled down from dates or grapes. It describes natural abundance rather than farmland worked by hand.

28But the people who live in that land are strong. Their cities are walled and very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there.

28Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

29The Amalekites live in the dry southern country. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the sea and along the Jordan River."

29The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

NoteThese are the peoples the Israelites expected to find in place. The Amalekites were a nomadic group of the southern desert; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites are named here as highland populations, the Jebusites specifically holding the site that later became Jerusalem; "Canaanites" is used here in a narrower sense for those settled on the coastal plain and in the Jordan valley.

30Then Caleb quieted the people down in front of Moses and said, "Let's go up right now and take the land, because we are certainly strong enough to defeat them."

30And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

31But the men who had gone with him said, "We can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are."

31But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

32So they spread a bad report among the people of Israel about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we traveled through to explore it is a land that eats up the people who live in it. Every person we saw there was huge.

32And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

NoteThe King James "evil report" translates a Hebrew phrase closer to a defamatory or slanderous report, not merely bad news, but a damaging account. The image of a land that "eats up" its inhabitants is deliberately open: it can suggest ground too harsh to support those who live on it, or a country so fought over that it consumes them.

33We saw the giants there, the sons of Anak, who come from the giants. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that is how we looked to them too."

33And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "giants" here is Nephilim, which most modern translations leave untranslated because its meaning is uncertain; the King James "giants" follows the ancient Greek version, which used the word for the giants of Greek legend. The same word appears in Genesis 6:4 for a group living before the flood. Grasshoppers, common and easily crushed underfoot, were a standing image for something insignificant.