New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 The Lord said to Moses,
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And the Lord said to Moses,
2 "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them."
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Send men to get knowledge about the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from every tribe of their fathers you are to send a man, every one a chief among them.
3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them leading men among the Israelites.
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And Moses sent them from the waste land of Paran as the Lord gave orders, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.
4 These were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;
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And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua, the son of Zaccur.
5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
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Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori.
6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
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Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.
7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
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Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal, the son of Joseph.
8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
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Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea, the son of Nun.
9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
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Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, the son of Raphu.
10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
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Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel, the son of Sodi.
11 from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi son of Susi;
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Of the tribe of Joseph, that is of the family of Manasseh, Gaddi, the son of Susi.
12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
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Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel, the son of Gemalli.
13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
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Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur, the son of Michael
14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
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Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi, the son of Vophsi.
15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.
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Of the tribe of Gad, Gevel, the son of Machi.
16 These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.
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These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to get knowledge about the land. And Moses gave to Hoshea, the son of Nun, the name of Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, "Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country,
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So Moses sent them to have a look at the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up into the South and into the hill-country;
18 and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many,
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And see what the land is like; and if the people living in it are strong or feeble, small or great in number;
19 and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified,
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And what sort of land they are living in, if it is good or bad; and what their living-places are, tent-circles or walled towns;
20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land." Now it was the season of the first ripe grapes.
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And if the land is fertile or poor, and if there is wood in it or not. And be of good heart, and come back with some of the produce of the land. Now it was the time when the first grapes were ready.
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.
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So they went up and got a view of the land, from the waste land of Zin to Rehob, on the way to Hamath.
22 They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
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They went up into the South and came to Hebron; and Ahiman and Sheshai and Talmai, the children of Anak, were living there. (Now the building of Hebron took place seven years before that of Zoan in Egypt.)
23 And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs.
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And they came to the valley of Eshcol, and cutting down a vine-branch with its grapes, two of them took it on a rod between them; and they took some pomegranates and figs.
24 That place was called the Wadi Eshcol, because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there.
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That place was named the valley of Eshcol because of the grapes which the children of Israel took from there.
25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.
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At the end of forty days they came back from viewing the land.
26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
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And they came back to Moses and Aaron and all the children of Israel, to Kadesh in the waste land of Paran; and gave an account to them and to all the people and let them see the produce of the land.
27 And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
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And they said, We came to the land where you sent us, and truly it is flowing with milk and honey: and here is some of the produce of it.
28 Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
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But the people living in the land are strong, and the towns are walled and very great; further, we saw the children of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan."
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And the Amalekites are in the South; and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill-country; and the Canaanites by the sea and by the side of Jordan.
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it."
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Then Caleb made signs to the people to keep quiet, and said to Moses, Let us go up straight away and take this land; for we are well able to overcome it.
31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we."
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But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
32 So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size.
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And they gave the children of Israel a bad account of the land they had been to see, saying, This land through which we went is a land causing destruction to those living in it; and all the people we saw there are men of more than common size.
33 There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them."
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There we saw those great men, the sons of Anak, offspring of the Nephilim: and we seemed to ourselves no more than insects, and so we seemed to them.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.