Spies Sent into Canaan
1 And theLordspoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”
3 So Moses sent themfrom the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of theLord, all of them men whowereheads of the children of Israel.
4 Now theseweretheir names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;
5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori;
6 from the tribe of Judah,Caleb the son of Jephunneh;
7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph;
8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun;
9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu;
10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi;
11 from the tribe of Joseph,thatis,from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi;
12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli;
13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael;
14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;
15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
16 Thesearethe names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses calledHoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
17 Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up thiswayinto the South, and go up tothe mountains,
18 and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in itarestrong or weak, few or many;
19 whether the land they dwell inisgood or bad; whether the cities they inhabitarelike camps or strongholds;
20 whether the landisrich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not.Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the timewasthe season of the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and spied out the landfrom the Wilderness of Zin as far asRehob, near the entrance ofHamath.
22 And they went up through the South and came toHebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants ofAnak,werethere. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23 Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole.Theyalsobroughtsome of the pomegranates and figs.
24 The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there.
25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.
26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, atKadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows withmilk and honey,and thisisits fruit.
28 Nevertheless thepeople who dwell in the landarestrong; the citiesarefortifiedandvery large; moreover we saw the descendants ofAnak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”
30 ThenCaleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for theyarestronger than we.”
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spiesisa land that devours its inhabitants, andall the people whom we saw in itaremen ofgreatstature.
33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we werelike grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we werein their sight.”