13:26 They came back 5 to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. 6 They reported 7 to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land. 13:27 They told Moses, 8 “We went to the land where you sent us. 9 It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, 10 and this is its fruit. 13:28 But 11 the inhabitants 12 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 13 of the Jordan.” 14
13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up 15 and occupy it, 16 for we are well able to conquer it.” 17 13:31 But the men 18 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 19 report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through 20 to investigate is a land that devours 21 its inhabitants. 22 All the people we saw there 23 are of great stature. 13:33 We even saw the Nephilim 24 there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves 25 and to them.” 26
14:1 27 Then all the community raised a loud cry, 28 and the people wept 29 that night. 14:2 And all the Israelites murmured 30 against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died 31 in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished 32 in this wilderness! 14:3 Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” 14:4 So they said to one another, 33 “Let’s appoint 34 a leader 35 and return 36 to Egypt.”
14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground 37 before the whole assembled community 38 of the Israelites. 14:6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of those who had investigated the land, tore their garments. 14:7 They said to the whole community of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly 39 good land. 14:8 If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us – a land that is flowing with milk and honey. 40 14:9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. 41 Their protection 42 has turned aside from them, but the Lord is with us. Do not fear them!”
14:10 However, the whole community threatened to stone them. 43 But 44 the glory 45 of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent 46 of meeting.
1:26 You were not willing to go up, however, but instead rebelled against the Lord your God. 49 1:27 You complained among yourselves privately 50 and said, “Because the Lord hates us he brought us from Egypt to deliver us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us! 1:28 What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage 51 by describing people who are more numerous 52 and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven 53 itself! Moreover, they said they saw 54 Anakites 55 there.”
1 tn 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 bend would be hard to use to carry things, but a pole or stave that was flexible would serve well.
2 tn The verb is rendered as a passive because there is no expressed subject.
3 tn Or “Wadi Eshcol.” The translation “brook” is too generous; the Hebrew term refers to a river bed, a ravine or valley through which torrents of rain would rush in the rainy season; at other times it might be completely dry.
4 tn The word “Eshcol” is drawn from the Hebrew expression concerning the “cluster of grapes.” The word is probably retained in the name Burj Haskeh, two miles north of Damascus.
5 tn The construction literally has “and they went and they entered,” which may be smoothed out as a verbal hendiadys, the one verb modifying the other.
6 sn Kadesh is Ain Qadeis, about 50 miles (83 km) south of Beer Sheba. It is called Kadesh-barnea in Num 32:8.
7 tn Heb “They brought back word”; the verb is the Hiphil preterite of שׁוּב (shuv).
8 tn Heb “told him and said.” The referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn The relative clause modifies “the land.” It is constructed with the relative and the verb: “where you sent us.”
10 sn This is the common expression for the material abundance of the land (see further, F. C. Fensham, “An Ancient Tradition of the Fertility of Palestine,” PEQ 98 [1966]: 166-67).
11 tn The word (אֶפֶס, ’efes) forms a very strong adversative. The land was indeed rich and fruitful, but….”
12 tn Heb “the people who are living in the land.”
13 tn Heb “by the side [hand] of.”
14 sn For more discussion on these people groups, see D. J. Wiseman, ed., Peoples of Old Testament Times.
15 tn The construction is emphatic, using the cohortative with the infinitive absolute to strengthen it: עָלֹה נַעֲלֶה (’aloh na’aleh, “let us go up”) with the sense of certainty and immediacy.
16 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive brings the cohortative idea forward: “and let us possess it”; it may also be subordinated to form a purpose or result idea.
17 tn Here again the confidence of Caleb is expressed with the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense: יָכוֹל נוּכַל (yakhol nukhal), “we are fully able” to do this. The verb יָכַל (yakhal) followed by the preposition lamed means “to prevail over, to conquer.”
18 tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.
19 tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.
20 tn Heb “which we passed over in it”; the pronoun on the preposition serves as a resumptive pronoun for the relative, and need not be translated literally.
21 tn The verb is the feminine singular participle from אָכַל (’akhal); it modifies the land as a “devouring land,” a bold figure for the difficulty of living in the place.
22 sn The expression has been interpreted in a number of ways by commentators, such as that the land was infertile, that the Canaanites were cannibals, that it was a land filled with warlike dissensions, or that it denotes a land geared for battle. It may be that they intended the land to seem infertile and insecure.
23 tn Heb “in its midst.”
24 tc The Greek version uses gigantes (“giants”) to translate “the Nephilim,” but it does not retain the clause “the sons of Anak are from the Nephilim.”
25 tn Heb “in our eyes.”
26 tn Heb “in their eyes.”
27 sn This chapter forms part of the story already begun. There are three major sections here: dissatisfaction with the reports (vv. 1-10), the threat of divine punishment (vv. 11-38), and the defeat of the Israelites (vv. 39-45). See K. D. Sakenfeld, “The Problem of Divine Forgiveness in Num 14,” CBQ 37 (1975): 317-30; also J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word רֹאשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.
28 tn The two verbs “lifted up their voice and cried” form a hendiadys; the idiom of raising the voice means that they cried aloud.
29 tn There are a number of things that the verb “to weep” or “wail” can connote. It could reflect joy, grief, lamentation, or repentance, but here it reflects fear, hopelessness, or vexation at the thought of coming all this way and being defeated by the Canaanite armies. See Judg 20:23, 26.
30 tn The Hebrew verb “to murmur” is לוּן (lun). It is a strong word, signifying far more than complaining or grumbling, as some of the modern translations have it. The word is most often connected to the wilderness experience. It is paralleled in the literature with the word “to rebel.” The murmuring is like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trusted their leaders and wished to choose a new leader and return. This “return to Egypt” becomes a symbol of their lack of faith in the
31 tn The optative is expressed by לוּ (lu) and then the verb, here the perfect tense מַתְנוּ (matnu) – “O that we had died….” Had they wanted to die in Egypt they should not have cried out to the
32 tn Heb “died.”
33 tn Heb “a man to his brother.”
34 tn The verb is נָתַן (natan, “to give”), but this verb has quite a wide range of meanings in the Bible. Here it must mean “to make,” “to choose,” “to designate” or the like.
35 tn The word “head” (רֹאשׁ, ro’sh) probably refers to a tribal chief who was capable to judge and to lead to war (see J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word רֹאשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 [1969]: 1-10).
36 tn The form is a cohortative with a vav (ו) prefixed. After the preceding cohortative this could also be interpreted as a purpose or result clause – in order that we may return.
37 sn This action of Moses and Aaron is typical of them in the wilderness with the Israelites. The act shows self-abasement and deference before the sovereign
38 tn Heb “before all the assembly of the congregation.”
39 tn The repetition of the adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od) is used to express this: “very, very [good].”
40 tn The subjective genitives “milk and honey” are symbols of the wealth of the land, second only to bread. Milk was a sign of such abundance (Gen 49:12; Isa 7:21,22). Because of the climate the milk would thicken quickly and become curds, eaten with bread or turned into butter. The honey mentioned here is the wild honey (see Deut 32:13; Judg 14:8-9). It signified sweetness, or the finer things of life (Ezek 3:3).
41 sn The expression must indicate that they could destroy the enemies as easily as they could eat bread.
42 tn Heb “their shade.” The figure compares the shade from the sun with the protection from the enemy. It is also possible that the text is alluding to their deities here.
43 tn Heb “said to stone them with stones.” The verb and the object are not from the same root, but the combination nonetheless forms an emphasis equal to the cognate accusative.
44 tn The vav (ו) on the noun “glory” indicates a strong contrast, one that interrupts their threatened attack.
45 sn The glory of the
46 tc The Greek, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in the cloud over the tent.”
47 tn Or “the Wadi Eshcol” (so NAB).
48 tn The Hebrew text includes “in their hand,” which is unnecessary and somewhat redundant in English style.
49 tn Heb “the mouth of the
50 tn Heb “in your tents,” that is, privately.
51 tn Heb “have caused our hearts to melt.”
52 tn Heb “greater.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “stronger,” NAB, NIV, NRSV; “bigger,” NASB).
53 tn Or “as the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
54 tn Heb “we have seen.”
55 tn Heb “the sons of the Anakim.”