Numbers 13:26-33

The Spies’ Reports

13:26 They came back ¹  to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. ²  They reported ³  to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land. 13:27 They told Moses, ⁴  “We went to the land where you sent us. ⁵  It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, ⁶  and this is its fruit. 13:28 But ⁷  the inhabitants ⁸  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 ⁹  of the Jordan.” ¹⁰ 

13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up ¹¹  and occupy it, ¹²  for we are well able to conquer it.” ¹³  13:31 But the men ¹⁴  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 ¹⁵  report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through ¹⁶  to investigate is a land that devours ¹⁷  its inhabitants. ¹⁸  All the people we saw there ¹⁹  are of great stature. 13:33 We even saw the Nephilim ²⁰  there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves ²¹  and to them.” ²² 

Numbers 14:6-10

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 ²³  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. ²⁴  14:9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. ²⁵  Their protection ²⁶  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. ²⁷  But ²⁸  the glory ²⁹  of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent ³⁰  of meeting.

[13:26]  ¹ 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.

[13:26]  ² sn Kadesh is Ain Qadeis, about 50 miles (83 km) south of Beer Sheba. It is called Kadesh-barnea in Num 32:8.

[13:26]  ³ tn Heb “They brought back word”; the verb is the Hiphil preterite of שׁוּב (shuv).

[13:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “told him and said.” The referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:27]  ⁵ tn The relative clause modifies “the land.” It is constructed with the relative and the verb: “where you sent us.”

[13:27]  ⁶ 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).

[13:28]  ⁷ tn The word (אֶפֶס, ’efes) forms a very strong adversative. The land was indeed rich and fruitful, but….”

[13:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “the people who are living in the land.”

[13:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “by the side [hand] of.”

[13:29]  ¹⁰ sn For more discussion on these people groups, see D. J. Wiseman, ed., Peoples of Old Testament Times.

[13:30]  ¹¹ 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.

[13:30]  ¹² 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.

[13:30]  ¹³ 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.”

[13:31]  ¹⁴ tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.

[13:32]  ¹⁵ tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.

[13:32]  ¹⁶ 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.

[13:32]  ¹⁷ 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.

[13:32]  ¹⁸ 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.

[13:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in its midst.”

[13:33]  ²⁰ 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.”

[13:33]  ²¹ tn Heb “in our eyes.”

[13:33]  ²² tn Heb “in their eyes.”

[14:7]  ²³ tn The repetition of the adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od) is used to express this: “very, very [good].”

[14:8]  ²⁴ 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).

[14:9]  ²⁵ sn The expression must indicate that they could destroy the enemies as easily as they could eat bread.

[14:9]  ²⁶ 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.

[14:10]  ²⁷ 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.

[14:10]  ²⁸ tn The vav (ו) on the noun “glory” indicates a strong contrast, one that interrupts their threatened attack.

[14:10]  ²⁹ sn The glory of the Lord refers to the reality of the Lord’s presence in a manifestation of his power and splendor. It showed to all that God was a living God. The appearance of the glory indicated blessing for the obedient, but disaster for the disobedient.

[14:10]  ³⁰ tc The Greek, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in the cloud over the tent.”