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Numbers 13:23
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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.)  
23 aThen 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.  
29 aThe 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.”  
31 aBut 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.”  
32 aAnd 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.” 
Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
<< Numbers 13:22   Numbers 13:24 >>


Numbers 13:23

They bare it between two upon a staff - It would be very easy to produce a great number of witnesses to Proverbs that grapes in the promised land, and indeed in various other hot countries, grow to a prodigious size. By Calmet, Scheuchzer, and Harmer, this subject has been exhausted, and to these I may refer the reader. Pliny mentions bunches of grapes in Africa each of which was larger than an infant. Radzvil saw at Rhodes bunches of grapes three quarters of an ell in length, each grape as large as a plum. Dandini saw grapes of this size at Mount Libanus; and Paul Lucas mentions some bunches which he saw at Damascus that weighed above forty-five pounds. From the most authentic accounts the Egyptian grape is very small, and this being the only one with which the Israelites were acquainted, the great size of the grapes of Hebron would appear still more extraordinary. I myself once cut down a bunch of grapes nearly twenty pounds in weight. Those who live in cold climates can scarcely have any conception to what perfection both grapes and other fruits grow in climates that are warm, and where the soil is suitable to them.

From what is mentioned Numbers 23:20, Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes, it is very probable that the spies received their orders about the beginning of August, and returned about the middle of September, as in those countries grapes, pomegranates, and figs, are ripe about this time; see Harmer, vol. i., p. 108-110. At Sheeraz, in Persia, I find from a MS. journal, that the small white grape, askerie , came into season August 6; and pomegranates September 6; and the large red grape, sahibi , September 10.

The spies' carrying the bunch of grapes on a staff between two men was probably not rendered necessary by the size of the bunch or cluster; but to preserve it from being bruised, that the Israelites might have a fair specimen of the fruit As Joshua and Caleb were the only persons who gave a favorable account of the land, it is most likely that they were the persons who had gathered these fruits, and who brought them to the Israelitish camp. And it is likely they were gathered as short a time as possible before their return, that they might not be injured by the length of the time they had been separated from their respective trees.




Other Adam Clarke entries containing Numbers 13:23:

Numbers 13:21
Isaiah 5:2

 

<< Numbers 13:22   Numbers 13:24 >>

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