Numbers 13
1 Then spake Yahweh unto Moses, saying:
Yahweh said to Moses/me,
2 Send for thee men and let them spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving unto the sons of Israel, —one man each for the tribe of his fathers, shalt thou send, each one a prince 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 So then Moses sent them out of the desert of Paran, at the bidding of Yahweh, —all of them, great men, heads of the sons of Israel, were they.
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, are their names, —Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua, 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, son of Hori;
Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, son of Jephunneh;
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal, son of Joseph;
Igal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea, son of Nun;
Hoshea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, son of Raphu;
Palti, the son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin;
10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel, son of Sodi;
Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun;
11 Of the tribe of Joseph—of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi;
Gaddi, the son of Susi, from the tribe of Manasseh;
12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel, son of Gemalli;
Ammiel, the son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur, son of Michael;
Sethur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi, son of Vophsi;
Nahbi, the son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel, son of Machi.
and Geuel, the son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.
16 These, are the names of the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, —but Moses called Hoshea son of Nun, 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 So Moses sent them, to spy out the land of Canaan, —and said unto them—Go up, here in the South, Yea ye shall go up 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 shall see the land, what it is, —And the people that dwell thereupon, Whether they are, strong, or weak, Whether they are, 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, wherein they dwell, Whether it is, good, or, bad, —And the cities within which they dwell, Whether in camps or in strongholds;
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, fat, or, lean, Whether there is timber therein or is not, Then shall ye pluck up courage and take of the fruit of the land. Now the days, were the days of the first-fruits of 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 spied out the land, —from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob at the entering in of 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 Yea they went up in the South and entered as far as Hebron, and there, were Ahiman Sheshai and Talmai descendants of the Anak. Now, Hebron, was built seven years, before Zoan of 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 entered as far as the ravine of Eschol, and cut down, from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and bare it on a pole between two, —also 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 That place, was called, The Ravine of Eschol ["Cluster-ravine"]—on account of the cluster, which was cut down from thence by the sons of Israel.
They called that place Eshcol [which means ‘cluster’] because they had cut that [huge] cluster of grapes there.
25 And they returned from spying out the land, —at the end of forty days.
After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
26 So they took their journey, and came in unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto all the assembly of the sons of Israel into the wilderness of Paran, towards Kadesh, —and brought back word—unto them and unto all the assembly, 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 recounted unto him, and said, We entered into the land whither thou didst send us, and surely it doth flow with milk and honey, and, this, is the fruit thereof.
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 surely mighty, are the people that dwell in the land, —and, the cities, walled in, exceeding great, moreover also, the descendants of the Anak, saw we 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 Amalek, dwelleth in the land of the South; And, the Hittite, and the Jebusite and the Amorite, dwell in the mountain And the Canaanite, dwelleth by the sea, and by the side of 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 And Caleb stilled the people unto Moses, —and said unto them—Let us go straight up, and possess it, for we shall, surely prevail, against 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 went up with him said, We cannot go up against the people, —for stronger, are they 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 So they sent forth a rumour of the land which they had spied out, among the sons of Israel, saying, —As touching the land through which we passed to spy it out, it is, land that eateth up them who dwell therein, And all the people that we saw in the midst thereof, were men of 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, saw we the giants, sons of Anak [descended] of the giants, —And we were in our own eyes, as grass-hoppers, And, so, were we in their eyes.
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!”
