Numbers 13–14

Spies Sent to Spy Out the Land of Canaan

13And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Send for yourself men, and let them explore the land of Canaan, which I am about to give to the Israelites;^a from each tribe of his father send one man,^b everyone a leader among them.” ³So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran on the command of Yahweh; all of the men were leaders^c of the Israelites.^{d 4}And these are 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, 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 Maki. ¹⁶These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to explore the land. And Moses called Hoshea son of Nun Joshua.

¹⁷Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan, and he said to them, “Go up like this to the Negev,^e and go up into the hill country, ¹⁸and you will see what the land is like and if the people who inhabit it are strong or weak, or whether they are few or many, ¹⁹and whether the land that they are inhabiting is good or bad, and whether the cities they are inhabiting are camps or fortifications, ²⁰and whether the land is fertile or lean, and whether there are trees on it or not. You will show yourself courageous, and you will take some of the fruit of the land.” It was the time of first ripe grapes.

²¹So they went up and explored the land from the desert of Zin until Rehob, at Lebo Hamath.^{f 22}They went up through the Negev^g and came to Hebron, where^h Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai the descendants of the Anakites were. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ²³And they came up to the valleyⁱ of Eshcol, and they cut off a vine branch and one cluster of grapes from there; they carried it on a pole between two men, with pomegranates and figs. ²⁴That place he called the valley^j of Eshcol on account of the cluster of grapes that the Israelites^k cut off from there.

The Spies Return

²⁵They returned from exploring the land at the end of forty days.^{l 26}And they came^m to Moses and Aaron and to the entire community of the Israelitesⁿ in the desert of Paran at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the community, and they showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷And they told him,^o “We came to the land that you sent us, and it is flowing of milk and honey; this is its fruit. ²⁸Yet the people who are inhabiting it are strong and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the descendants of the Anakites there. ²⁹The Amalekites are living in the land of the Negev;^p the Hittites, Jebusites, and the Amorites are living in the hill country; and the Canaanites are living at the sea and on the banks of the Jordan.”

³⁰And Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “Surely, let us go up and let us take possession of it because surely we will be able to prevail over it.” ³¹And the men who went up with him said, “We are not able to go up to the people because they are stronger than us.” ³²And they presented the report of the land that they explored to the Israelites,^q saying, “The land that we went through to explore is a land that eats its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in its midst are men of great size.^{r 33}There we saw the Nephilim (the descendants^s of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their eyes.”

The People Complain

14Then all the community lifted up their voices,^a and the people wept during that night. ²And all the Israelites^b grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and all the community said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt or in this desert! ³Why did Yahweh bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little children will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” ⁴They said to each other,^c “Let us appoint a leader, and we will return to Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before^d the assembly of the community of the Israelites.^{e 6}Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, from the explorers of the land, tore their garments. ⁷And they said to all the community of the Israelites,^f “The land that we went through to explore is an exceptionally good land.^{g 8}If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and he will give it to us, a land that is flowing with milk and honey. ⁹Only do not rebel against Yahweh, and you will not fear the people of the land, because they will be our food. Their protection^h has been turned from them; Yahweh is with us. You should not fear them.” ¹⁰And all the community said to stone them with stones, but the glory of Yahweh appeared in the tent of assembly among the Israelites.ⁱ

¹¹And Yahweh said to Moses, “How long until this people will despise me, and how long until they will not believe in me, and in all the signs that I have done in their^j midst? ¹²I will strike them^k with disease, and I will dispossess them;^l I will make you into a greater and stronger nation than them.”^m

¹³And Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear that you brought up this people from theirⁿ midst in your power, ¹⁴and they will tell it^o to the inhabitants of this land. They heard that you, Yahweh, are in the midst of this people, that you are seen eye to eye, and your cloud is standing over them, and in a column of cloud you go before them by day and in a column of fire at night. ¹⁵But if you destroy this people all at once,^p the nations that will have heard your message will say, ¹⁶‘Yahweh was unable to bring this people in the land that he swore by an oath, and he slaughtered them in the desert.’ ¹⁷But now, please, let the power of my Lord be great, just as you spoke,

¹⁸‘Yahweh is slow to anger^q

and great of loyal love,

forgiving^r sin and rebellion;

but surely he leaves nothing unpunished,

visiting the sin of the fathers on the sons

to the third and fourth generations.’

¹⁹Please forgive the sin of this people according to the greatness of your loyal love, just as you forgave^s this people, from Egypt until now.”

²⁰Yahweh said, “I have forgiven them according to your word; ²¹but as I am alive, the glory of Yahweh will fill all the earth. ²²But because all the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the desert yet tested me these ten times and did not listen to my voice, ²³they will not see the land that I swore by oath to their ancestors,^t and all those who despised me will not see it. ²⁴But my servant Caleb, because another spirit was with him, he remained true after me, and I will bring him into the land that he entered,^u and his offspring will take possession of it. ²⁵And the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; tomorrow turn and set out for the desert by way of the Red Sea.”^v

²⁶And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²⁷“How long will I bear this evil community who are grumbling against me? I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites^w which they are making^x against me. ²⁸Say to them, ‘Surely as I live,’ declares^y Yahweh, ‘just as you spoke in my hearing,^z so I will do to you; ²⁹in this desert your corpses will fall, and all your counted ones, according to all your number, from twenty years old^a and above who grumbled against me. ³⁰You yourselves will not come into the land that I swore by oath^b to make you to dwell in it, but Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹But your little children, whom you said would be plunder, I will bring them, and they will know the land that you rejected. ³²But for you, all your corpses will fall in this desert. ³³And your children will be shepherds in the desert forty years,^c and you will bear your unfaithfulness until all your corpses have fallen^d in the desert. ³⁴According to the number of the days^e that you explored the land, forty days,^f a day for each year,^g you will bear your sins forty years,^h and you will know my opposition.’ ³⁵I, Yahweh, have spoken; I will surely do this to all this evil community who has banded together against me. In this desert they will come to an end, and there they will die.”

³⁶As for the men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made the community grumble against him by spreading a report over the land, ³⁷the men who spread the evil report of the land died by the plague before Yahweh.^{i 38}But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh lived from among the men who went to explore the land.

³⁹And Moses spoke words to all the Israelites,^j and the people mourned greatly. ⁴⁰They rose early in the morning and went to the top of the mount, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that Yahweh said, because we have sinned.” ⁴¹But Moses said, “Why are you going against the command of Yahweh? It will not succeed. ⁴²You should not go up because Yahweh is not in your midst; do not let yourselves be defeated in the presence of your enemies, ⁴³because the Amalekites^k and the Canaanites^l are there before you,^m and you will fall by the sword; because you have turned back from Yahweh, and Yahweh will not be with you.” ⁴⁴But they dared to go to the top of the mountain, and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh and Moses did not depart from the midst of the camp. ⁴⁵So the Amalekitesⁿ and the Canaanites^o who were living on the mountain descended, and they beat them down, up to Hormah.