Numbers 13
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me,
And YHWH speaks 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 for yourself, and they spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel; one man—you send one man for the tribe of his fathers, everyone 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 sends them from the wilderness of Paran by the command of YHWH; all of them [are] men, [and] they are heads 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: for the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;
5 Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
for the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
6 Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
for the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
7 Igal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
for the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
8 Hoshea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
for the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea son of Nun;
9 Palti, the son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin;
for the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
10 Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun;
for the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel 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 son of Susi;
12 Ammiel, the son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
for the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
13 Sethur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
for the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
14 Nahbi, the son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
for the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vopshi;
15 and Geuel, the son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.
for 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 [are] the names of the men whom Moses has sent to spy out the land; and Moses calls Hoshea son of Nun, 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 sends them to spy out the land of Canaan and says to them, “Go up this [way] into the south, and you have gone up 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 have seen the land, what it [is], and the people which is dwelling on it, whether it [is] strong or feeble, [and] whether it [is] 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] in which it is dwelling, whether it [is] good or bad; and what [are] the cities in which it is dwelling, whether in camps or in fortresses.
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 is wood in it or not; and you have strengthened yourselves, and have taken of the fruit of the land”; now the days [are] days of the first-fruits of 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 go up and spy out the land, from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob at the going in to 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 go up by the south, and come to Hebron, and there [are] Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, children of Anak (and Hebron was 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 come to the Brook of Eshcol, and cut down a branch and one cluster of grapes there, and they carry it on a staff by two, also [some] 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 has been called the Brook of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut from there.
25 After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
And they return from spying out the land at the end of 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 go and come to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and they bring them and all the congregation back word, and show 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 recount to him, and say, “We came to the land to where you have sent us, and it is indeed flowing with milk and honey—and this [is] 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.
only, surely the people which is dwelling in the land [is] strong; and the cities are fortified [and] very great; and we have also seen 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 is dwelling in the land of the south, and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite are dwelling in the hill country, and the Canaanite is dwelling 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 stills the people concerning Moses and says, “Let us certainly go up—and we have possessed it; for we are thoroughly 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!”
And the men who have gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for it [is] 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 bring out an evil account of the land which they have spied out to the sons of Israel, saying, “The land into which we passed over to spy it out is a land eating up its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in its midst [are] men of 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, sons of Anak, of the giants; and we are as grasshoppers in our own eyes—and so we were in their eyes.”
