¹⁹“Then we set out from Horeb, and we went through the whole of that great and terrible desert that you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites^j as Yahweh our God had commanded us, and so we came up to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰I said to you, ‘You have reached^k the hill country of the Amorites^l that Yahweh our God is giving to us. ²¹See, Yahweh your God has set before you the land; go up and possess it as Yahweh the God of your ancestors^m said to you; do not fear and do not be dismayed.’

²²“Then all of you approached me, and you said, ‘Let us send men before us,ⁿ and let them explore the land for us, and let them bring back a report^o to us concerning the way that we should take^p and concerning the cities that we shall come to.’ ²³The plan was good in my opinion,^q and so I took from among you twelve men, one from each tribe.^r ²⁴And they set out^s and went up into the hill country,^t and they went up to the valley^u of Eshcol, and they spied out the land. ²⁵They took in their hands^v some of the fruit^w of the land, and they brought it down to us, and they brought to us back a report,^x and they said, ‘The land that Yahweh our God is giving to us is good.’ ²⁶But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the command^y of Yahweh your God. ²⁷And you grumbled in your tents, and you said, ‘Because of the hatred of Yahweh toward us he has brought us out from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites^z to destroy us. ²⁸Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt,^a saying,^b “The people are greater^c and taller than we are,^d and there are great fortified cities reaching up to heaven, and we saw the sons of the Anakites living there.” ’

²⁹“And so I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, and do not fear them. ³⁰Yahweh your God, who is going before you,^e will himself^f fight for you, just as^g he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹and just as he did in the wilderness^h whenⁱ you saw that^j Yahweh your God carried you, just as someone^k carries his son, all along the way that you traveled until you reached^l this place.’ ³²But through all of this you did not trust in Yahweh your God, ³³who goes^m before youⁿ on your^o way, seeking a place for your encampment, in fire at night and in a cloud by day, to show you the way that you should go.^p

Read in Logos

Footnotes

jHebrew “Amorite”
kLiterally “You have come up to”
lHebrew “Amorite”
mOr “fathers”
nLiterally “before our faces” or “ahead of us”
oLiterally “a word”
pLiterally “we should go up by it”
qLiterally “in my eyes”
rLiterally “man one from the tribe”
sLiterally “turned”
tLiterally “went up toward the hill country mountain”
uOr “wadi”
vHebrew “hand”
wLiterally “from the fruit”
xLiterally “a word”
yLiterally “mouth”
zHebrew “Amorite”
aLiterally “caused to melt our hearts”
bLiterally “to say”
cOr “bigger”
dHebrew “than us”
eLiterally “to your faces”
fThe Hebrew pronoun indicates emphasis
gLiterally “like all that”
hOr “desert”
iOr “where”
jOr “how”
kOr “a man”
lLiterally “you came”
mLiterally “is the one going”
nLiterally “before your faces”
oHebrew “the”
pLiterally “you should go in it”