^13:1¹ The Lord spoke² to Moses: ^13:2“Send out men to investigate³ the land of Canaan, which I am giving⁴ to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe,⁵ each one a leader among them.” ^13:3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command⁶ of the Lord. All of them were leaders⁷ of the Israelites.

^13:4Now these were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; ^13:5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; ^13:6from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; ^13:7from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; ^13:8from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; ^13:9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; ^13:10from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; ^13:11from the tribe⁸ of Joseph, namely, the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi; ^13:12from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; ^13:13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; ^13:14from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vopshi; ^13:15from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. ^13:16These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.⁹

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Footnotes

1 Chapter 13 provides the names of the spies sent into the land (vv. 1–16), their instructions (vv. 17–20), their activities (vv. 21–25), and their reports (vv. 26–33). It is a chapter that serves as a good lesson on faith, for some of the spies walked by faith, and some by sight.
2 The verse starts with the vav (ו) consecutive on the verb: “and.…”
3 The imperfect tense with the conjunction is here subordinated to the preceding imperative to form the purpose clause. It can thus be translated “send … to investigate.”
4 The participle here should be given a future interpretation, meaning “which I am about to give” or “which I am going to give.”
5 Heb “one man one man of the tribe of his fathers.”
6 Heb “mouth.”
7 Heb “heads.”
8 Some scholars emend “tribe” to “sons.” Cf. Num 1:10.
9 The difference in the names is slight, a change from “he saves” to “the Lord saves.” The Greek text of the OT used Iesoun for Hebrew Yeshua.