16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to1 spy out the land. And Moses called aHoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
17 Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to athe mountains,
18 and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many;
19 whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds;
20 whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. aBe of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and spied out the land afrom the Wilderness of Zin as far as bRehob, near the entrance of cHamath.
22 And they went up through the South and came to aHebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of bAnak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23aThen they came to the1 Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.
24 The place was called the Valley of1 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, at aKadesh; 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 truly1 flows with amilk and honey, band this is its fruit.
28 Nevertheless the apeople who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of bAnak there.
29aThe 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 Then aCaleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
31aBut the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
32aAnd 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 spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ball the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
33 There we saw the giants (athe descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were blike grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were cin their sight.”
NUMBERS. This book is so called because it contains an account of the enumeration and arrangement of the Israelites. The early part of it, from the first through the tenth chapters, appears to be a supplement to Leviticus, being occupied with relating the appointment of the Levites to the sacred offices. The journal of the march through the wilderness is then given as far as Numbers 21:20; after which the early incidents of the invasion are narrated. One direct quotation only from this book (Numbers 16:5) is made in the New Testament (II Timothy 2:19); but indirect references to it by the later sacred writers are very numerous.
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