Numbers 13
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me,
And 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 for you men, and let them spy the land of the Chananites, which I give to the sons of Israel for a possession; one man for a tribe, you shall send them away according to their families, every one of them a prince.
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 out of the wilderness of Pharan by the word of the Lord; all these [were] the princes of the sons 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: of the tribe of Ruben, Samuel the son of Zachur.
5 Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
Of the tribe of Symeon, Saphat the son of Suri.
6 Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
Of the tribe of Judah, Chaleb the son of Jephonne.
7 Igal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
Of the tribe of Issachar, Ilaal the son of Joseph.
8 Hoshea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
Of the tribe of Ephraim, Ause the son of Naue.
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, Gudiel the son of Sudi.
11 Gaddi, the son of Susi, from the tribe of Manasseh;
Of the tribe of Joseph of the sons of Manasse, Gaddi the son of Susi.
12 Ammiel, the son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
Of the tribe of Dan, Amiel the son of Gamali.
13 Sethur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
Of the tribe of Aser, Sathur the son of Michael.
14 Nahbi, the son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
Of the tribe of Nephthali, Nabi the son of Sabi.
15 and Geuel, the son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.
Of the tribe of Gad, Gudiel the son of Macchi.
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 spy out the land; and Moses called Ause the son of Naue, 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.
And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Chanaan, and said to them, Go up by this wilderness; and you shall go up to the mountain,
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 you shall see the land, what it is, and the people that dwells on it, whether it is strong or weak, or [whether] they are 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 on which they dwell, [whether] it is good or bad; and what the cities are wherein these dwell, whether they dwell in walled [cities] or unwalled.
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 rich or poor; whether there are trees in it or no: and you shall persevere and take of the fruits of the land: and the days [were] the days of spring, the forerunners of the grape.
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 surveyed the land from the wilderness of Sin to Rhoob, as men go in to Aemath.
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 wilderness, and departed as far as Chebron; and there [was] Achiman, and Sessi, and Thelami, the progeny of Enach. Now Chebron was built seven years before Tanin 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 they came to the valley of the cluster and surveyed it; and they cut down thence a bough and one cluster of grapes upon it, and bore it on staves, and [they took] of the pomegranates and the figs.
24 They called that place Eshcol [which means ‘cluster’] because they had cut that [huge] cluster of grapes there.
And they called that place, The valley of the cluster, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from thence.
25 After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
And they returned from thence, having surveyed 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 proceeded and came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Pharan Cades; and they brought word to them and to all the congregation, and they showed 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 reported to him, and said, We came into the land into which you sent us, a land flowing 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 nation that dwells upon it is bold, and they have very great and strong walled towns, and we saw there the children of Enach.
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].”
And Amalec dwells in the land toward the south: and the Chettite and the Evite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwells in the hill country: and the Chananite dwells by the sea, and by the river 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 Chaleb stayed the people from speaking before Moses, and said to him, Nay, but we will go up by all means, and will inherit it, for we shall surely prevail against them.
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 together with him said, We will not go up, for we shall not by any means be able to go up against the nation, for it is much 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 a horror of that land which they surveyed upon the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed by to survey it, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of extraordinary 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 we saw the giants; and we were before them as locusts, yes even so were we before them.
