Numbers 13

Spies Sent into Canaan

1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Send men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one man, each one a leader among them.” 3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the command of the LORD. All of them were men who were heads among the Israelites.

4These were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; 5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; 9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; 10from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11from the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi; 12from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 14from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; 15from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. 16These were the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. Moses called Hoshea son of Nun Joshua.

Explore the Land

17Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up through the Negev and then go up into the hill country. 18See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, few or many; 19whether the land in which they live is good or bad; whether the cities in which they live are camps or fortifications; 20and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be courageous and take some of the fruit of the land.” Now the season was the season of the first ripe grapes.

The Land Explored

21So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of Anak, were. Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. 23They came to the Wadi Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which two of them carried on a pole, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24That place was called the Wadi Eshcol because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there. 25At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.

The Report of the Spies

26They came to Moses and Aaron and to the whole congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. 27They reported to him and said, “We came to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. We also saw the descendants of Anak there. 29Amalek lives in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”

30Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should certainly go up and take possession of it, for we are surely able to overcome it.” 31But 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 are.” 32So they brought to the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored, saying, “The land through which we passed to explore is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are people of great stature. 33There we saw the Nephilim—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim—and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”