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Text -- Numbers 13:1-24 (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 .
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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 |
Exodus |
PENTATEUCH, 3 |
JOSHUA (2) |
NUMBER |
PALESTINE EXPLORATION, 1 |
Israel |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 3-4 |
MOSES |
Kadesh |
NUMBERS, BOOK OF |
Canaan |
WANDERINGS OF ISRAEL |
Ahiman |
Raphu |
Shaphat |
Rehob |
Zaccur |
Zin |
more
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
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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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