Numbers 13
Numbers 13:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,
Numbers 13:2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers, you will send a man, each one a leader among them.”
Numbers 13:3 So Moses sent them from the open country of Paran, according to the command of Yahveh, all of them men who were leaders of the people of Israel.
Numbers 13:4 And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;
Numbers 13:5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori;
Numbers 13:6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh;
Numbers 13:7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph;
Numbers 13:8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun;
Numbers 13:9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, the son of Raphu;
Numbers 13:10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi;
Numbers 13:11 from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi the son of Susi;
Numbers 13:12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli;
Numbers 13:13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur, the son of Michael;
Numbers 13:14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;
Numbers 13:15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel, the son of Machi.
Numbers 13:16 These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.
Numbers 13:17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negev and go up into the hill country,
Numbers 13:18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who stay in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many,
Numbers 13:19 and whether the land that they stay in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they stay in are camps or strongholds,
Numbers 13:20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be strong[1] and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
Numbers 13:21 So they went up and spied out the land from the open country of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.
Numbers 13:22 They went up into the Negev and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
Numbers 13:23 And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs.
Numbers 13:24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.
Numbers 13:25 At the end of forty days, they returned from spying out the land.
Numbers 13:26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the people of Israel in the open country of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
Numbers 13:27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
Numbers 13:28 However, the people who stay in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
Numbers 13:29 The Amalekites stay in the land of the Negev. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites stay in the hill country. And the Canaanites stay by the sea and along the Jordan.”
Numbers 13:30 But Caleb quieted the people in the sight of Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it because we are well able to overcome it.”
Numbers 13:31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people because they are stronger than we are.”
Numbers 13:32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, and this is what he said: “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.
Numbers 13:33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
[1] חָזָק = be strong.
Numbers 13 quotes:
“God knows the greatest threat to this mission is not the people and the walled cities of this land of milk and honey, no matter how well “fortified” (Num. 13:19). No, the greatest threat to the forward motion of this story is the fear ever welling up in the hearts of these travelers. God’s people were and still are far more proficient at sitting and wailing, than at marching and praising. We quickly grow nostalgic for the past, even a past of slavery, whenever “the future” is uncertain, even that future as far out as our next cup of water, or our next bite of bread. As this people gets ready to face their greatest test of the future (their entry into a new land of promise), the Lord only knows that they will need some help, a lot of help, and the more tangible the better. So God offers them a “foretaste of.the future,” in word (the report) and in sacrament (the fruit), so that they might “be bold,” as were these leaders, when the time to “cross over” arrives.”
Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 156.
“Out of that vast crowd, only four people acknowledged the importance of seeking God’s mind and trusting his word. The rest, tortured by uncertainty, plagued with inadequacy and paralysed by fear, refused to press on with their journey. Christian readers will learn from their mistakes and trace their path into the future with the landmarks clearly portrayed in this graphic narrative. There may be times when, like them, we are genuinely fearful about the way ahead. Some have discovered they are seriously unwell or have heard that someone they love has a terminal illness. Security at work is threatened; redundancy and unemployment become a grim probability. Church relationships may have become soured by the damaging example of an admired leader or the defection of valued friends. Family stability has been jeopardized by a partner’s unfaithfulness, or parents may be deeply troubled about tensions in the lives of their married children. What seemed a reasonably tranquil and secure life is suddenly tossed into agonizing turmoil. How does the believer react to such a dramatic and unwelcome change of circumstances?”
Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 114.
“The report must have struck paralyzing fear in the tribes that stood and listened. Terror seized their hearts, and Caleb must have immediately sized up the situation. He replied with a swift conclusion without taking the time to build up his case: They should take possession of the land, he said, for we can certainly do it. Caleb’s response was the response of faith. God’s words stirred up his heart in believing faith, and the empirical evidence he had gained by witnessing the land for himself corroborated this conclusion.”
Martin, Glen, and Max E. Anders. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Broadman & Holman, 2002. p. 308.
“Their request for spies reveals a lack of faith on their part. They are not trusting Him. God had already been in and spied out the land. He knew all about it. He would not have sent them into the land unless He knew they could take it. When they finally did enter the land, the giants were still there; all the difficulties and problems were still there, yet they took the land.”
McGee J. Vernon. Numbers. T. Nelson 1991. p. 86.
“From Deuteronomy 1:22 it seems that the purpose of the mission was to strengthen the Israelites’ faith, not to bring back tactical information.”
Wenham, Gordon J.. Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries Book 4) (p. 131). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
Numbers 13 links:
an obedient walk
scout’s dishonor
the grasshopper report
what you see hiking
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