Numbers 13:33

33 detraxeruntque terrae quam inspexerant apud filios Israhel dicentes terram quam lustravimus devorat habitatores suos populum quem aspeximus procerae staturae est

Numbers 13:33 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 13:33

And there we saw the giants
Not throughout the land, and yet it is so expressed, and in such connection with what goes before, that it might be so understood, and as they might choose it should; that as there were men everywhere of an uncommon size, and were generally so, there were some larger than they in all places, of a prodigious size, of a gigantic stature; and yet this was only in Hebron where they saw them;

the sons of Anak;
whose names are given, ( Numbers 13:22 ) ; and there were but three of them:

[which came] of the giants;
they, were of the race of giants; for not only Anak their father, but Arba their grandfather was one; ( Joshua 14:15 ) ( Joshua 15:13 ) ;

and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers;
little diminutive creatures in comparison of them; an hyperbolical exaggeration of the greatness of the giants, and of their own littleness:

and so we were in their sight;
but this they could not be so certain of, and could only make conjectures by their neglect or supercilious treatment of them. Jarchi makes them to speak of them more diminutively still, as that they heard those giants saying one to another,

``there are ants in the vineyards like men.''

Numbers 13:33 In-Context

31 inter haec Chaleb conpescens murmur populi qui oriebatur contra Mosen ait ascendamus et possideamus terram quoniam poterimus obtinere eam
32 alii vero qui fuerant cum eo dicebant nequaquam ad hunc populum valemus ascendere quia fortior nobis est
33 detraxeruntque terrae quam inspexerant apud filios Israhel dicentes terram quam lustravimus devorat habitatores suos populum quem aspeximus procerae staturae est
34 ibi vidimus monstra quaedam filiorum Enach de genere giganteo quibus conparati quasi lucustae videbamur
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.