< Numbers 13 >

1 Yahweh said to Moses/me,
And the LORD said to Moses,
2 “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.”
“Send out for yourself men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each of their fathers’ tribes send one man who is a leader among them.”
3 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.
So at the consent of the LORD, Moses sent them out from the Wilderness of Paran. All the men were leaders of the Israelites,
4 These are the names of the men [and the tribes they belonged to: ] Shammua, the son of Zaccur, from the tribe of Reuben;
and these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;
5 Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
6 Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
7 Igal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
8 Hoshea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
9 Palti, the son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin;
from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
10 Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun;
from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
11 Gaddi, the son of Susi, from the tribe of Manasseh;
from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi;
12 Ammiel, the son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
13 Sethur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
14 Nahbi, the son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
15 and Geuel, the son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.
and from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.
16 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].’
These were the names of the men Moses sent to spy out the land; and Moses gave to Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.
17 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.
When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev and into the hill country.
18 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.
See what the land is like and whether its people are strong or weak, few or many.
19 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?
Is the land where they live good or bad? Are the cities where they dwell open camps or fortifications?
20 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.
Is the soil fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous, and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
21 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].
So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath.
22 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.
They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
23 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].
When they came to the Valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs.
24 They called that place Eshcol [which means ‘cluster’] because they had cut that [huge] cluster of grapes there.
Because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there, that place was called the Valley of Eshcol.
25 After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
After forty days the men returned from spying out the land,
26 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.
and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 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.
And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit!
28 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.
Nevertheless, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We even saw the descendants of Anak there.
29 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].”
The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”
30 [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!”
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!”
31 But the men who had gone with him said, “No, we cannot attack [and defeat] those people! They are much stronger than we are!”
But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!”
32 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.
So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.
33 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!”
We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”

< Numbers 13 >