Numbers 13:1-31
Read Numbers 13 in full →The Spies Sent into Canaan
13Then aYahweh spoke to Moses saying, 2“aSend out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” 3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the 1command of Yahweh, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. 4These then were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;
5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; 6from the tribe of Judah, aCaleb the son of Jephunneh; 7from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8from the tribe of Ephraim, aHoshea the son of Nun; 9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; 10from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; 11from the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; 12from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; 13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; 14from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; 15from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called aHoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
17So Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up 1there into athe 2Negev; then go up 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. 19“And how is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they 1like open camps or with fortifications? 20“aAnd how is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? 1Make an beffort then to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.
21So they went up and spied out the land from athe wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, 1,bat Lebo-hamath. 22And they had gone up into athe Negev and 1came to Hebron where bAhiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the 2descendants of cAnak were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before dZoan in Egypt.)
23Then they came to the 1valley of 2,aEshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men with some of the pomegranates and the figs. 24That place was called the valley of 1Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut down from there.
The Spies Recount What They Saw
25Then they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, 26and went and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel 1in the wilderness of Paran, at aKadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. 27Thus they recounted to him and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and ait certainly does flow with milk and honey, and bthis is its fruit. 28“Nevertheless, athe people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw bthe 1descendants of Anak there. 29“Amalek is living in the land of athe Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and bthe Amorites are living in the hill country, and cthe Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”