Numbers 13
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me,
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said,
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 some men to examine the land of Canaan, which I have given to the people of Israel. Send a man from every tribe of their ancestors. Each man must be 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.
Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, so that they might obey Yahweh's command. All of them were leaders among the people 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;
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 Joseph (that is to say, from the tribe Manasseh), 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.
from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki.
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 whom Moses sent to examine the land. Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by the name of 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.
Moses sent them to examine the land of Canaan. He said to them, “Approach from the Negev 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.
Examine the land to see what it is like. Observe the people who live there, whether they are strong or weak, and 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?
See what the land is like where they live. Is it good or bad? What cities are there? Are they like camps, or are they fortified cities?
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.
See what the land is like, whether it is good for growing crops or not, and whether there are trees there or not. Be brave and bring back samples of the land's produce.” Now the time 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 the men went up and examined the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near 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 from the Negev and arrived at Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, clans descended from 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].
When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut down a branch with a cluster of grapes. They carried it on a staff between two of their group. They also brought pomegranates and figs.
24 They called that place Eshcol [which means ‘cluster’] because they had cut that [huge] cluster of grapes there.
That place was named the Valley of Eshkol, because of the grape cluster that the people of Israel cut down there.
25 After they explored the land for 40 days, they returned to their camp.
After forty days, they returned from examining 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.
They came back to Moses, Aaron, and all the community of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the community, and showed them the produce from 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.
They told Moses, “We reached the land to which you sent us. It certainly flows with milk and honey. Here is some produce from 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.
However, the people who make their homes there are strong. The cities are fortified and very large. We also saw 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 Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites have their homes in the hill country. The Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan River.”
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 silenced the people who were before Moses and said, “Let us go up and take possession of the land, for we are certainly 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 other men who had gone with him said, “We are not able to attack the people because 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 spread around a discouraging report to the people of Israel about the land that they had examined. They said, “The land that we looked at is a land that eats up its inhabitants. All the people whom we saw there are people of great height.
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 giants, descendants of Anak, people who came from giants. In our own sight we were like grasshoppers in comparison with them, and this is what we were in their sight, too.”
