Numbers 13:31

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "¹We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us."

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 "Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan."

30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it."

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us."

32 So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.

33 "There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim ); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 1:28; Deuteronomy 9:1-3