Numbers 13:28
Context13:28 But 1 the inhabitants 2 are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
Numbers 13:33
Context13:33 We even saw the Nephilim 3 there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves 4 and to them.” 5
Numbers 13:32
Context13:32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging 6 report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through 7 to investigate is a land that devours 8 its inhabitants. 9 All the people we saw there 10 are of great stature.


[13:28] 1 tn The word (אֶפֶס, ’efes) forms a very strong adversative. The land was indeed rich and fruitful, but….”
[13:28] 2 tn Heb “the people who are living in the land.”
[13:33] 3 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] 4 tn Heb “in our eyes.”
[13:33] 5 tn Heb “in their eyes.”
[13:32] 5 tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.
[13:32] 6 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] 7 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] 8 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.