Leaders explore the land of Canaan
1 The LORD spoke to Moses:
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Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, which I'm giving to the Israelites. Send one man from each ancestral tribe, each a chief among them.
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So Moses sent them out from the Paran desert according to the LORD's command. All the men were leaders among the Israelites.
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These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua, Zaccur's son;
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from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, Hori's son;
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from the tribe of Judah, Caleb, Jephunneh's son;
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from the tribe of Issachar, Igal, Joseph's son;
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from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea, Nun's son;
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from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, Raphu's son;
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from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel, Sodi's son;
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from the tribe of Joseph: from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi, Susi's son;
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from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel, Gemalli's son;
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from the tribe of Asher, Sethur, Michael's son;
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from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi, Vophsi's son;
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from the tribe of Gad, Geuel, Machi's son.
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These are the names of the men whom Moses sent out to explore the land. Moses changed the name of Hoshea, Nun's son, to Joshua.
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When Moses sent them out to explore the land of Canaan, he said to them, "Go up there into the arid southern plain and into the mountains.
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You must inspect the land. What is it like? Are the people who live in it strong or weak, few or many?
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Is the land in which they live good or bad? Are the towns in which they live camps or fortresses?
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Is the land rich or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous and bring back the land's fruit." It was the season of the first ripe grapes.
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They went up and explored the land from the Zin desert to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.
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They went up into the arid southern plain and entered Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of the Anakites, lived. (Hebron was built seven years before Tanis in Egypt.)
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Then they entered the Cluster ravine, cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and carried it on a pole between them. They also took pomegranates and figs.
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That place was called the Cluster ravine because of the cluster of grapes that the Israelites cut down from there.