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Text -- Numbers 13:1-33 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
Spies Sent Out
13:1 The Lord spoke to Moses :
13:2 “Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan , which I am giving to the Israelites . You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe , each one a leader among them.”
13:3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord . All of them were leaders of the Israelites .
13:4 Now these were their names : from the tribe of Reuben , Shammua son of Zaccur ;
13:5 from the tribe of Simeon , Shaphat son of Hori ;
13:6 from the tribe of Judah , Caleb son of Jephunneh ;
13:7 from the tribe of Issachar , Igal son of Joseph ;
13:8 from the tribe of Ephraim , Hoshea son of Nun ;
13:9 from the tribe of Benjamin , Palti son of Raphu ;
13:10 from the tribe of Zebulun , Gaddiel son of Sodi ;
13:11 from the tribe of Joseph , namely, the tribe of Manasseh , Gaddi son of Susi ;
13:12 from the tribe of Dan , Ammiel son of Gemalli ;
13:13 from the tribe of Asher , Sethur son of Michael ;
13:14 from the tribe of Naphtali , Nahbi son of Vopshi ;
13:15 from the tribe of Gad , Geuel son of Maki .
13:16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land . And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua .
The Spies’ Instructions
13:17 When Moses sent them to investigate the land of Canaan , he told them, “Go up through the Negev , and then go up into the hill country
13:18 and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak , few or many ,
13:19 and whether the land they live in is good or bad , and whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or fortified cities,
13:20 and whether the land is rich or poor , and whether or not there are forests in it. And be brave , and bring back some of the fruit of the land .” Now it was the time of year for the first ripe grapes .
The Spies’ Activities
13:21 So they went up and investigated the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob , at the entrance of Hamath .
13:22 When they went up through the Negev , they came to Hebron where Ahiman , Sheshai , and Talmai , descendants of Anak , were living. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt .)
13:23 When they came to the valley of Eshcol , they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes , and they carried it on a staff between two men, as well as some of the pomegranates and the figs .
13:24 That place was called the Eshcol Valley , because of the cluster of grapes that the Israelites cut from there .
13:25 They returned from investigating the land after forty days .
The Spies’ Reports
13:26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh . They reported to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land .
13:27 They told Moses, “We went to the land where you sent us. It is indeed flowing with milk and honey , and this is its fruit .
13:28 But the inhabitants are strong , and the cities are fortified and very large . Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there .
13:29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev ; the Hittites , Jebusites , and Amorites live in the hill country ; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan .”
13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses , saying , “Let us go up and occupy it, for we are well able to conquer it.”
13:31 But the men who had gone up with him said , “We are not able to go up against these people , because they are stronger than we are!”
13:32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging report of the land they had investigated , saying , “The land that we passed through to investigate is a land that devours its inhabitants . All the people we saw there are of great stature .
13:33 We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim ), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them.”
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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Names, People and Places:
Dictionary Themes and Topics:
Caleb |
Spies |
JOSHUA (2) |
Exodus |
NUMBER |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 3-4 |
Israel |
PALESTINE EXPLORATION, 1 |
PENTATEUCH, 3 |
Kadesh |
MOSES |
NUMBERS, BOOK OF |
Canaan |
Anakim |
Majority and Minority Reports |
Reports |
Ahiman |
WANDERINGS OF ISRAEL |
Trouble |
Sethur |
more
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Num 13:1; Num 13:1; Num 13:2; Num 13:2; Num 13:2; Num 13:3; Num 13:3; Num 13:11; Num 13:16; Num 13:17; Num 13:17; Num 13:18; Num 13:18; Num 13:20; Num 13:20; Num 13:20; Num 13:21; Num 13:21; Num 13:22; Num 13:22; Num 13:22; Num 13:22; Num 13:23; Num 13:24; Num 13:24; Num 13:24; Num 13:26; Num 13:26; Num 13:26; Num 13:27; Num 13:27; Num 13:27; Num 13:28; Num 13:28; Num 13:29; Num 13:29; Num 13:30; Num 13:30; Num 13:30; Num 13:31; Num 13:32; Num 13:32; Num 13:32; Num 13:32; Num 13:32; Num 13:33; Num 13:33; Num 13:33; Num 13:33
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NET Notes: Num 13:16 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 ...
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NET Notes: Num 13:17 The instructions had them first go up into the southern desert of the land, and after passing through that, into the hill country of the Canaanites. T...
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NET Notes: Num 13:20 The reference to the first ripe grapes would put the time somewhere at the end of July.
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NET Notes: Num 13:21 The idiom uses the infinitive construct: “to enter Hamath,” meaning, “on the way that people go to Hamath.”
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NET Notes: Num 13:22 The text now provides a brief historical aside for the readers. Zoan was probably the city of Tanis, although that is disputed today by some scholars....
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NET Notes: Num 13:23 The word is related etymologically to the verb for “slip, slide, bend, totter.” This would fit the use very well. A pole that would not be...
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NET Notes: Num 13:24 The word “Eshcol” is drawn from the Hebrew expression concerning the “cluster of grapes.” The word is probably retained in the...
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NET Notes: Num 13:26 Heb “They brought back word”; the verb is the Hiphil preterite of שׁוּב (shuv).
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NET Notes: Num 13:27 This is the common expression for the material abundance of the land (see further, F. C. Fensham, “An Ancient Tradition of the Fertility of Pale...
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NET Notes: Num 13:29 For more discussion on these people groups, see D. J. Wiseman, ed., Peoples of Old Testament Times.
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NET Notes: Num 13:30 Here again the confidence of Caleb is expressed with the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense: יָכוֹל ...
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NET Notes: Num 13:31 The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.
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