Numbers 13:31

31 But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!”

Numbers 13:31 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 13:31

But the men that went up with him
With Caleb, all but Joshua: the other ten

said, we be not able to go up against the people;
this they had not said before, though they plainly suggested it, and, to make the people believe this, had represented the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in the light they did; but now, in direct opposition to Caleb, fully expressed it, giving this reason for it:

for they [are] stronger than we;
being both of a larger size and more numerous.

Numbers 13:31 In-Context

29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”

30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!”

31 But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!”

32 So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.

33 We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”