Numbers 13
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me,
And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
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 thou men, that they may search out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Ye shall send a man of every tribe of his fathers, each a prince 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.
And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran: according to the commandment of Jehovah, all of them heads of the children of Israel.
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 are their names: for the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;
5 Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
for the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori;
6 Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
for the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh;
7 Igal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
for the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph;
8 Hoshea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
for the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun;
9 Palti, the son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin;
for the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu;
10 Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun;
for the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi;
11 Gaddi, the son of Susi, from the tribe of Manasseh;
for the tribe of Joseph, for the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi;
12 Ammiel, the son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
for the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli;
13 Sethur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
for the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael;
14 Nahbi, the son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
for the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;
15 and Geuel, the son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.
for the tribe of Gad, Geuel the 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 are the names of the men whom Moses sent to search out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Jehoshua.
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.
And Moses sent them to search out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up this way by the south and go up 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.
and ye shall see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell in it, whether they 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?
and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds;
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.
and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there are trees in it, or not. And take courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first 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].
And they went up, and searched out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, where one comes towards 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.
And they went up by the south, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. Now Hebron 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].
And they came as far as the valley of Eshcol, and cut down thence a branch with one bunch of grapes, and they bore it between two upon a pole; and [they brought] of the pomegranates, and of the figs.
24 They called that place Eshcol [which means ‘cluster’] because they had cut that [huge] cluster of grapes there.
That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the grapes which the children of Israel had cut down there.
25 After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
And they returned from searching out the land after forty days.
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 came, and went to Moses and to Aaron, and to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to the whole assembly; and shewed 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 told him, and said, We came to the land to which thou didst send us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
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.
Only, the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, very great; moreover we saw the children 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].”
Amalek dwells in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill-country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the side of 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!”
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up boldly and possess it, for we are well able to do 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 that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
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.
And they brought to the children of Israel an evil report of the land which they had searched out, saying, The land, which we have passed through to search it out, is a land that eateth up its inhabitants; and all the people that we have seen in it are men of great 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!”
and there have we seen giants — the sons of Anak are of the giants — and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were also in their sight.
