Numbers
Chapter 13
1 God spoke to Moses, saying,
2 Send people to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe, send one leader.
3 Moses, following God’s command, sent them from the Paran desert: all those men were leaders of the Israelites.
4 Their names were these: from Reuben’s tribe, Shammua, Zaccur’s son.
5 From the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, Hori’s son.
6 Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, was from the tribe of Judah.
7 From the Issachar tribe, Igal, Joseph’s son.
8 From the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.
9 From the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, Raphu’s son.
10 From Zebulun’s tribe, Gaddiel, Sodi’s son.
11 From Joseph’s tribe, that is, from Manasseh’s tribe, Gaddi, Susi’s son.
12 From the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli.
13 From Asher’s tribe, Sethur, Michael’s son.
14 Nahbi, Vophsi’s son, was from the tribe of Naphtali.
15 From the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. And Moses named Oshea, Nun’s son, Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan and told them, “Go up from the south and climb into the mountains.”
18 Look at the land and what it’s like, and the people living there, whether they are strong or weak, and if there are many or just a few.
19 Find out about the land where they live, whether it is good or bad, and what kind of cities they live in, whether they are camps or fortified cities.
20 Describe the land, if it’s rich or poor, and if there are trees or not. Be brave and bring back some of the land’s fruit. It was the season for early grapes.
21 They went and explored the land from the Zin desert to Rehob, near Hamath.
22 They went up from the south and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron was founded seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23 They reached Eshcol’s stream, cut a grape branch with one bunch of grapes, carried it on a pole between two, and took pomegranates and figs.
24 The place was named Eshcol Creek because the Israelites cut a bunch of grapes from there.
25 They came back from exploring the land after forty days.
26 They went and returned to Moses, Aaron, and all the Israelites at the Paran desert, near Kadesh, and told them and everyone what they saw and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 They told him, “We went to the land you sent us to, and it is full of milk and honey; this is its fruit.”
28 But the people living in the land are strong, and their cities have high walls and are very big. Also, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites live in the southern land; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the mountains; and the Canaanites live by the sea and near the Jordan river.
30 Caleb calmed the people in front of Moses and said, “Let’s go right now and take the land; we can definitely conquer it.”
31 But the men who went with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than us.”
32 They gave a bad report about the land they explored to the Israelites, saying, “The land we went to check out is one that destroys its people, and everyone we saw there is very tall.”
33 We saw giants there, Anak’s descendants, who were from the giants. We felt like grasshoppers to ourselves, and that’s how we seemed to them.