Numbers 32:9

9 When they went up to the valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the {Israelites} so that they did not come to the land that Yahweh gave to them.

Numbers 32:9 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 32:9

For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol
That is, when they went up the hill, for they were bid to go up into the mountain, and proceeded on into the country, until they came to the valley or brook, of Eshcol, so called from the cluster of grapes they there cut down, and brought along with them, ( Numbers 13:17 Numbers 13:23 Numbers 13:24 )

and saw the land;
searching it for the space of forty days:

they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel;
by telling them that there were giants in the land, and that the people in common were strong, and their cities walled, and that they were not able to go up against them and overcome them; and by this means they disheartened the people:

that they should not go, into the land which the Lord had given them;
and this Moses feared, and suggests would be the consequence of the request the two tribes now made.

Numbers 32:9 In-Context

7 Why are you discouraging the hearts of the {Israelites} from crossing into the land that Yahweh gave to them?

8 This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

9 When they went up to the valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the {Israelites} so that they did not come to the land that Yahweh gave to them.

10 So {Yahweh's anger burned} on that day, and he swore an oath, saying,

11 'The men who went up from Egypt, from {those twenty years old} and above, will not see the land that I swore with an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they have not wholly followed me,

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "the wadi"
• [b]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"