Numbers 13:17–33

¹⁷When Moses sent them to explore Canaan,^o he said, “Go up through the Negev^p and on into the hill country.^{q 18}See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? ²⁰How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.^r” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)^s

²¹So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin^t as far as Rehob,^u toward Lebo Hamath.^{v 22}They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron,^w where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai,^x the descendants of Anak,^y lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)^{z 23}When they reached the Valley of Eshkol,^aa they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates^b and figs.^{c 24}That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. ²⁵At the end of forty days^d they returned from exploring the land.^e

Report on the Exploration

²⁶They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh^f in the Desert of Paran.^g There they reported to them^h and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.^{i 27}They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!^j Here is its fruit.^{k 28}But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.^l We even saw descendants of Anak^m there.^{n 29}The Amalekites^o live in the Negev; the Hittites,^p Jebusites^q and Amorites^r live in the hill country;^s and the Canaanites^t live near the sea and along the Jordan.^u”

³⁰Then Caleb^v silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

³¹But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”^{w 32}And they spread among the Israelites a bad report^x about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours^y those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.^{z 33}We saw the Nephilim^a there (the descendants of Anak^b come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers^c in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”