Numbers 13
1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Yahweh said to Moses/me,
2 Send you men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a ruler among them.
“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 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
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 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.
These are the names of the men [and the tribes they belonged to: ] Shammua, the son of Zaccur, from the tribe of Reuben;
5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.
Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.
Igal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.
Hoshea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.
Palti, the son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin;
10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.
Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun;
11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.
Gaddi, the son of Susi, from the tribe of Manasseh;
12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.
Ammiel, the son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.
Sethur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.
Nahbi, the son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
and Geuel, the son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.
16 These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.
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 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:
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 And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwells therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;
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 And 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;
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 And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be you of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.
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 they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, as men come to 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 And they ascended by the south, and came to Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
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 And they came to the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it between two on a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the 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 called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from there.
They called that place Eshcol [which means ‘cluster’] because they had cut that [huge] cluster of grapes there.
25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.
After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
26 And they went and came to Moses, and 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, and showed them the fruit of the land.
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 And they told him, and said, We came to the land where you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
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 Nevertheless 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.
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 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.
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 And 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.
[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 that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
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 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched to the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
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 And 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.
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!”
