Numbers 13
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me,
And there the Lord 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 men to view the land of Chanaan, which I will give to the children of Israel, one of every tribe, of the rulers.
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.
Moses did what the Lord had commanded, sending from the desert of Pharan, principal men, whose names are these:
4 These are the names of the men [and the tribes they belonged to: ] Shammua, the son of Zaccur, from the tribe of Reuben;
Of the tribe of Ruben, Sammua the son of Zechur.
5 Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
Of the tribe of Simeon, Saphat the son of Hurl.
6 Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
Of the tribe of Juda, Caleb the son of Jephone.
7 Igal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.
8 Hoshea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
Of the tribe of Ephraim, Osee the son of Nun.
9 Palti, the son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin;
Of the tribe of Benjamin, Phalti the son of Raphu.
10 Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun;
Of the tribe of Zabulon, Geddiel the son of Sodi.
11 Gaddi, the son of Susi, from the tribe of Manasseh;
Of the tribe of Joseph, of the sceptre of Manasses, Gaddi the son of Susi.
12 Ammiel, the son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.
13 Sethur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
Of the tribe of Aser, Sthur the son of Michael.
14 Nahbi, the son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
Of the tribe of Nephtali, Nahabi the son of Vapsi.
15 and Geuel, the son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.
Of the tribe of Gad, Guel 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 view the land: and he called Osee the son of Nun, Josue.
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 view the land of Chanaan, and said to them: Go you up by the south side. And when you shall come to the mountains,
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.
View the land, of what sort it is: and the people that are the inhabitants thereof, whether they be strong or weak: few in number 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?
The land itself, whether it be good or bad: what manner of cities, walled or without walls:
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.
The ground, fat or barren, woody or without trees. Be of good courage, and bring us of the fruits of the land. Now it was the time when the first ripe grapes are fit to be eaten.
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 when they were gone up, they viewed the land from the desert of Sin, unto Rohob as you enter into Emath.
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 at the south side, and came to Hebron, where were Achiman and Sisai and Tholmai the sons of Enac. For Hebron was built seven years before Tanis the city of 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 going forward as far as the torrent of the cluster of grapes, they cut off a branch with its cluster of grapes, which two men carried upon a lever. They took also of the pomegranates and of the figs of that place:
24 They called that place Eshcol [which means ‘cluster’] because they had cut that [huge] cluster of grapes there.
Which was called Nehelescol, that is to say, the torrent of the cluster of grapes, because from thence the children of Israel had carried a cluster of grapes.
25 After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
And they that went to spy out the land returned after forty days, having gone round all the country,
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 came to Moses and Aaron and to all the assembly of the children of Israel to the desert of Pharan, which is in Cades. And speaking to them and to all the multitude, they shewed them the fruits 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 related and said: We came into the land to which thou sentest us, which in very deed floweth with milk and honey as may be known by these fruits:
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.
But it hath very strong inhabitants, and the cities are great and walled. We saw there the race of Enac.
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].”
Amalec dwelleth in the south, the Hethite and the Jebusite and the Amorrhite in the mountains: but the Chanaanite abideth by the sea and near the streams 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!”
In the mean time Caleb, to still the murmuring of the people that rose against Moses, said: Let us go up and possess the land, for we shall be able to 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 others, that had been with him, said: No, we are not able to go up to this people, because 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 spoke ill of the land, which they had viewed, before the children of Israel, saying: The land which we have viewed, devoureth its inhabitants: the people, that we beheld, are of a tall 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!”
There we saw certain monsters of the sons of Enac, of the giant kind: in comparison of whom, we seemed like locusts.
