Numbers 13
1 The LORD spoke to Moses:
2 “Send men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each tribe of their fathers, each one a leader among them.”
3 Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, as the LORD had commanded. They were all men, heads of the Israelites.
4 These were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur.
5 From the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori.
6 From the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh.
7 From the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph.
8 From the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun.
9 From the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu.
10 From the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi.
11 From the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi.
12 From the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli.
13 From the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael.
14 From the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi.
15 From the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.
16 These were the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up this way through the Negev, then into the hill country.
18 See what the land is like, and whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many.
19 See what the land they live in is like, whether it is good or bad, and what the towns they live in are like, whether they are camps or fortified cities.
20 See what the land is like, whether it is fertile or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be courageous and bring back some of the land’s fruit.” It was the season when the first grapes ripened.
21 They went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath.
22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of Anak, lived. Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
23 They came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two of them; they also brought pomegranates and figs.
24 That place was named the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster the Israelites cut down there.
25 They returned from exploring the land after forty days.
26 They went and came to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back a report to them and to the whole community, and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 They told him, “We went to the land you sent us to. It really does flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.
28 But the people living in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large. We also saw descendants of Anak there.
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 Jordan.”
30 Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let’s go up at once and take possession of it, because we can certainly conquer it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t go up against those people, because they are stronger than we are.”
32 They spread a bad report among the Israelites about the land they had explored: “The land we passed through to explore is a land that devours its inhabitants, and everyone we saw there was exceptionally tall.
33 We saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak are from the Nephilim—and we seemed like grasshoppers to ourselves, and that is how we seemed to them.”
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