Numbers 13:1-24

Spies View the Land

1 Then ¹the LORD spoke to Moses saying,

2 "²Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each * of their fathers' tribes, every one a leader among them."

3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel.

4 These then were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;

5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori;

6 from the tribe of Judah, ³Caleb the son of Jephunneh;

7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph;

8 from the tribe of Ephraim, ⁴Hoshea the son of Nun;

9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu;

10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi;

11 from the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi;

12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli;

13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael;

14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;

15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called ⁵Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.

17 When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, "Go up there into ⁶the Negev; then go up into the hill country.

18 "See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many.

19 "How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications?

20 "⁷How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an ⁸effort then to get some of the fruit of the land." Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

21 So they went up and spied out the land from ⁹the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, ¹⁰at Lebo-hamath.

22 When they had gone up into ¹¹the Negev, they came to Hebron where ¹²Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of ¹³Anak were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before ¹⁴Zoan in Egypt.)

23 Then they came to the valley of ¹⁵Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men, with some of the pomegranates and the figs.

24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because * of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut down from there.

Numbers 13:1-24 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 13

In this chapter an order is given by the Lord, to send twelve men into the land of Canaan, to search and spy it, and which was accordingly executed, Nu 13:1-3; and the names of the twelve persons are given, Nu 13:4-16; the instructions they received from Moses, what part of the land they should enter into first, and what observations they should make on it, Nu 13:17-20; which they attended to, and on their return brought some of the fruit of the land with them, Nu 13:21-26; and gave an account of it, that it was a very fruitful land, but the inhabitants mighty, and their cities walled, Nu 13:27-29; which threw the people into confusion, but that they were stilled by Caleb, one of the spies, who encouraged them, Nu 13:30; but all the rest, excepting Joshua, brought an ill report of it, as not to be subdued and conquered by them, Nu 13:31-33.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 1:22, 23
• 2. Deuteronomy 1:22; Deuteronomy 9:23
• 3. Numbers 14:6, 30; Joshua 14:6
• 4. Numbers 13:16; Deuteronomy 32:44
• 5. Numbers 13:8; Deuteronomy 32:44
• 6. Genesis 12:9; Genesis 13:1, 3
• 7. Deuteronomy 1:24, 25
• 8. Deuteronomy 31:6, 23
• 9. Numbers 20:1; Numbers 27:14; Numbers 33:36
• 10. Joshua 13:5
• 11. Numbers 13:17
• 12. Joshua 15:14
• 13. Numbers 13:28, 33
• 14. Psalms 78:12, 43
• 15. Genesis 14:13; Numbers 13:24; Numbers 32:9; Deuteronomy 1:24

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "mouth"
• [b]. Lit "here"
• [c]. I.e. South country, and so throughout the ch
• [d]. Lit "in"
• [e]. Lit "Use your strength"
• [f]. Or "to the entrance of Hamath"
• [g]. Lit Most mss read "one came"
• [h]. Lit "children"
• [i]. Or "wadi"
• [j]. I.e. cluster
• [k]. I.e. cluster