Numbers 13–14

Scouting Out Canaan

13The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Send men to scout out the land of Canaan ^eI am giving to the Israelites. Send one man who is a leader among them from each of their ancestral tribes.” ³Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran at the Lord’s command. All the men were leaders in Israel. ^f4These were their names:

Shammua son of Zaccur from the tribe of Reuben;

⁵Shaphat son of Hori from the tribe of Simeon;

⁶Caleb ^gson of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah;

⁷Igal son of Joseph from the tribe of Issachar;

⁸Hoshea son of Nun ^hfrom the tribe of Ephraim;

⁹Palti son of Raphu from the tribe of Benjamin;

¹⁰Gaddiel son of Sodi from the tribe of Zebulun;

¹¹Gaddi son of Susi from the tribe of Manasseh (from the tribe of Joseph);

¹²Ammiel son of Gemalli from the tribe of Dan;

¹³Sethur son of Michael from the tribe of Asher;

¹⁴Nahbi son of Vophsi from the tribe of Naphtali;

¹⁵Geuel son of Machi from the tribe of Gad.

¹⁶These were the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and Moses renamed Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁷When Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up this way to the Negev, then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸See what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹Is the land they live in good ⁱor bad? Are the cities they live in encampments or fortifications? ^j20Is the land fertile or unproductive? ^kAre there trees in it or not? Be courageous. Bring back some fruit from the land.” It was the season for the first ripe grapes. ^l

²¹So they went up and scouted out the land from the Wilderness of Zin ^mas far as Rehob ⁿnear the entrance to Hamath. ^o22They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, ^pwere living. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan ^qin Egypt. ²³When they came to the Valley of Eshcol, ^rthey cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which was carried on a pole by two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs. ^s24That place was called the Valley of Eshcol ^tbecause of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there. ²⁵At the end of 40 days ^uthey returned from scouting out the land.

Report about Canaan

²⁶The men went back to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for them and the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land. ^v27They reported to Moses: “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey, ^wand here is some of its fruit. ²⁸However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. ^xWe also saw the descendants of Anak ^ythere. ²⁹The Amalekites ^zare living 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 ^aquieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”

³¹But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we are!” ³²So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. ³³We even saw the Nephilim ^bcthere—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim! ^dTo ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.”

Israel’s Refusal to Enter Canaan

14Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. ²All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, ^eand the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword? Our wives and little children will become plunder. ^fWouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ^g4So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground in front of the whole assembly of the Israelite community. ⁶Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who scouted out the land, tore their clothes ⁷and said to the entire Israelite community: “The land we passed through and explored is an extremely good land. ^h8If the Lord is pleased with us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, ⁱand give it to us. ⁹Only don’t rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. ^jTheir protection ^khas been removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Don’t be afraid of them!”

¹⁰While the whole community threatened to stone them, ^lthe glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.

God’s Judgment of Israel’s Rebellion

¹¹The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people despise Me? How long will they not trust in Me despite all the signs I have performed among them? ^m12I will strike them with a plague and destroy them. Then I will make you into a greater and mightier nation than they are.” ⁿ

¹³But Moses replied to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear about it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from them. ¹⁴They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. ^oThey have heard that You, Lord, are among these people, how You, Lord, are seen face to face, how Your cloud stands over them, and how You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ^p15If You kill this people with a single blow, ^qrthe nations that have heard of Your fame ^swill declare, ¹⁶‘Since the Lord wasn’t able to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, ^tHe has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ ^u

¹⁷“So now, may my Lord’s power be magnified just as You have spoken: ¹⁸The Lord is slow to anger and rich in faithful love, ^vforgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. ^wBut He will not leave the guilty unpunished, ^xbringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children to the third and fourth generation. ^y19Please pardon the wrongdoing of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your faithful love, ^zjust as You have forgiven them from Egypt until now.”

²⁰The Lord responded, “I have pardoned them as you requested. ²¹Yet as surely as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, ^a22none of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested Me these 10 times and did not obey Me, ²³will ever see the land I swore to give their fathers. ^bNone of those who have despised Me ^cwill see it. ²⁴But since My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me completely, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it. ^d25Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the lowlands, ^eturn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.” ^f

²⁶Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷“How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about Me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against Me. ^g28Tell them: As surely as I live,” this is the Lord’s declaration, “I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. ²⁹Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you 20 years old or more ^h—because you have complained about Me. ³⁰I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised ⁱto settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder ^jinto the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it. ^k32But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. ³⁴You will bear the consequences of your sins 40 years based on the number of the 40 days that you scouted the land, a year for each day. ^lmYou will know My displeasure. ⁿ³⁵I, Yahweh, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against Me. ^oThey will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.” ^p

³⁶So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land— ³⁷those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by the Lord. ³⁸Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land.

Israel Routed

³⁹When Moses reported these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome with grief. ⁴⁰They got up early the next morning and went up the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Let’s go to the place the Lord promised, for we were wrong.” ^q

⁴¹But Moses responded, “Why are you going against the Lord’s command? It won’t succeed. ⁴²Don’t go, because the Lord is not among you and you will be defeated by your enemies. ⁴³The Amalekites and Canaanites are right in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. The Lord won’t be with you, since you have turned from following Him.”

⁴⁴But they dared to go up the ridge of the hill country, even though the ark of the Lord’s covenant and Moses did not leave the camp. ⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them as far as Hormah. ^r