Numbers 13
1 The Lord told Moses,
Yahweh said to Moses/me,
2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, the country I'm giving to the Israelites. Choose one of the leaders from each of the tribes to go and do this.”
“Send some men to Canaan [land] to explore it. That is the land that I will give to you Israelis. Send men who are leaders in their tribes.”
3 Moses did as the Lord had ordered and sent the men out from the Desert of Paran. They were all leaders of the Israelites.
So Moses/I did what Yahweh commanded him/me. He/I sent out twelve Israeli men who were all leaders of their tribes. He/I sent them from their/our camp at Paran in the desert.
4 Their names were: Shammua son of Zaccur, from the tribe of Reuben.
These are the names of the men [and the tribes they belonged to: ] Shammua, the son of Zaccur, from the tribe of Reuben;
5 Shaphat, son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon.
Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
6 Caleb, son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah.
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
7 Igal, son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar.
Igal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
8 Hoshea, son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim.
Hoshea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
9 Palti son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin.
Palti, the son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin;
10 Gaddiel, son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun.
Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun;
11 Gaddi, son of Susi, from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph).
Gaddi, the son of Susi, from the tribe of Manasseh;
12 Ammiel, son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan.
Ammiel, the son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
13 Sethur, son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher.
Sethur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
14 Nahbi, son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali.
Nahbi, the son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
15 Geuel, son of Machi, from the tribe of Gad.
and Geuel, the son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.
16 These were the names of the men that Moses sent to explore the country. Moses called Hoshea Joshua.
Those are the names of the men whom Moses/I sent out to explore Canaan. [Before they left], Moses/I gave Hoshea a new name, Joshua, [which means ‘Yahweh is the one who saves].’
17 Moses sent them out to explore the land of Canaan, telling them, “Go through the Negev and on into the hill country.
Before Moses/I sent them to explore Canaan, he/I said to them, “Go through the southern part of Canaan, and then go [north] into the hilly area.
18 See what the place looks like, and find out about the people living there—are they strong or weak? Are there many of them or only a few?
See what the land is like. See if the people who live there are strong or weak. See if there are many people or only a few people.
19 Is the land where they're living good or bad? Are their towns like open camps, or do they have defensive walls?
Find out what kind of land they live in [RHQ]. Is it good or bad? Find out about the towns in which they live [RHQ]. Do they have walls around them or not?
20 Is the soil productive or not? Is it forested? Be brave, and bring back some of the country's fruit.” (It was the beginning of the grape harvest.)
Find out about the soil [RHQ]. Is it (fertile/good for growing crops) or not? Find out if there are trees there [RHQ]. Try to bring back some of the fruit that grows in that land.” [He/I said that because] it was the beginning of the time to harvest grapes.
21 So the men went and explored the land all the way from the Desert of Zin to Rehob, bear Lebo-hamath.
So those men went to Canaan. They went [through the entire land], from the Zin desert [in the south] all the way to Rehob [town] near Lebo-Hamath [in the north].
22 They went through the Negev and arrived in Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. This town was built seven years before the Egyptian town of Zoan.
In the south, they went to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, [huge men] descended from Anak, lived. Hebron was a city that was built seven years before Zoan [city] was built in Egypt.
23 When they arrived at the Valley of Eshcol they chopped down a branch that had just one bunch of grapes. They had to carry it on a pole held between two men. They also collected some pomegranates and figs.
In one valley, they cut from a grapevine one cluster of grapes. [Because it was very large, they needed] two men to carry it on a pole. They also picked some pomegranates and some figs [to carry back to their camp].
24 (The place was named the Valley of Eshcol because of the bunch of grapes they took from there.)
They called that place Eshcol [which means ‘cluster’] because they had cut that [huge] cluster of grapes there.
25 Forty days later the men returned from exploring the country.
After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
26 They went to see Moses and Aaron, and all the Israelites gathered there at their camp in Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. They gave a report before everyone and showed them the fruit they had brought back from the country.
They came to Aaron and Moses/me and the rest of the Israeli people in the desert at Paran. They reported to everyone what they had seen. They also showed them the fruit that they had brought back.
27 This is the report they gave to Moses: “We went and explored the country you sent us to, and it is definitely very productive, as if it was flowing with milk and honey. Just look at some of its fruit!
But this is what they reported to Moses/me: “We arrived in the land that you sent us to explore. It is truly a beautiful land, and it is very fertile [IDM]. Here is some of the fruit.
28 But the people living there are strong, and their towns are big and have defensive walls. We also saw some descendants of Anak there.
But the people who live there are very strong. Their cities are large and are surrounded by walls. We even saw some of the [huge] descendants of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites live in the Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live on the sea coast and also beside the Jordan.”
The descendants of Amalek live in the southern part [of the land], and the descendants of Heth, Jebus, and Amor live in the hilly area [to the north]. The descendants of Canaan live along the coast of the [Mediterranean] sea and along the Jordan [River].”
30 Then Caleb asked for quiet as the people stood before Moses and told them, “Let's go and take over the land. We can conquer the country, no doubt about it!”
[When they said that, the people were afraid and started to cry out very loudly]. But Caleb told the people who were standing near Moses/me to be quiet. Then he said, “We should go there and take the land, because we are certainly able to conquer it!”
31 But the men who had gone with him disagreed. “We can't go and fight these people! They're much stronger than us!”
But the men who had gone with him said, “No, we cannot attack [and defeat] those people! They are much stronger than we are!”
32 They spread a negative report among the Israelites about the country they had explored. They told people, “The country we explored destroys the people that live there. Plus everyone we saw was really big!
So those men gave to the Israeli people a bad report about the land that they had explored. They said, “The land that we explored is very large; we cannot conquer it. And all the people whom we saw are very tall.
33 We even saw giants there—people descended from Anak the giant! Compared to them we looked like grasshoppers, and we must have looked like that to them too!”
We even saw the descendants of Nephili there. The descendants of Anak [whom we saw there] are descended from the giant Nephili people. When we saw them, we felt [as small] as grasshoppers [SIM], and they thought that we looked like grasshoppers too!”
