Deuteronomy 1:28

28 Where are we headed? Our kindred have made our hearts melt by reporting, "The people are stronger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified up to heaven! We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!' "

Deuteronomy 1:28 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 1:28

Whither shall we go up?
&c.] What way can we go up into the land? where is there any access for us? the mountain we are come to, and directed to go up, is possessed by the Amorites, a strong and mighty people, who keep and guard the passes, that there is no entrance:

our brethren have discouraged our hearts;
ten of the spies; for Joshua and Caleb encouraged them with very powerful arguments, which had they listened to, it would have been well for them:

saying, the people is greater and taller than we;
more in number, larger in bulk of body, and higher in stature:

the cities are great, and walled up to heaven;
an hyperbolical expression; their fears exaggerated the account of the spies; they told them they were great, large, and populous, walled, and strongly fortified; which appeared in their frightened imaginations as if their walls were so high as to reach up to heaven, so that it was impossible to scale them, or get possession of them:

and, moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakims there;
the giants so called from Anak, the son of Arba, the father of them; their names are given, ( Numbers 13:22 Numbers 13:23 ) ( Joshua 14:15 ) ( Joshua 15:13 Joshua 15:14 ) .

Deuteronomy 1:28 In-Context

26 But you were unwilling to go up. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God;

27 you grumbled in your tents and said, "It is because the Lord hates us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us.

28 Where are we headed? Our kindred have made our hearts melt by reporting, "The people are stronger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified up to heaven! We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!' "

29 I said to you, "Have no dread or fear of them.

30 The Lord your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes,