Numberschapter 13
33 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
Numbers 13 brings Israel to the southern border of the land promised to Abraham, a little more than a year after they left Egypt. The book kept the record for a nation that would stand at the same border a second time. Twelve leaders are sent, one from each tribe. The land they searched was a real place with walled towns, vineyards and roads known to traders. Listen for the difference between what the men saw and what they said it meant. Two of them read the same facts another way, and the chapter leaves the camp to choose between the two reports.
Context
- Who
- A nation camped one march from the land it had been promised
- What
- A narrative of twelve tribal leaders sent to scout Canaan and the two opposed reports they brought back.
- Where
- Kadesh in the Wilderness of Paran, from which the men went north through the Negev as far as Rehob near Lebo-hamath.
- When
- The second year after the Exodus, in the season of the first ripe grapes in late summer, about 1445 BC on the traditional dating.
- Why
- To show that the land was as good as God had said, and that the danger lay in the scouts' fear of its people.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Moses, who was the head of the nation and the man the scouts were sent out by and reported back to. The twelve he sent were leaders in their own tribes, so the report would carry the weight of the men who brought it. The year is the second after the Exodus, on the traditional reckoning this book uses, and the season is fixed by the text itself at the time of the first ripe grapes.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The camp stood at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Paran, at the southern approach to Canaan. The errand ran the length of the country, from the Wilderness of Zin in the south to Rehob near the approach to Hamath.
Numbers 13:1-2 has the order come from the LORD, and Deuteronomy 1:22 records the people coming to Moses first with the proposal.
Canaan in this period was a patchwork of small city-states, each with its own ruler and most of them under Egyptian oversight. That is the arrangement the diplomatic letters found at Amarna in Egypt show, with local kings writing to pharaoh for troops. Their towns had real defensive walls built on earthen ramparts, and to men who had spent a year in tents they would have looked enormous. The note that Hebron was built seven years before Zoan is an Egyptian anchor, since Zoan is Tanis in the Nile delta, which Adam Clarke names as the capital of Lower Egypt.
Significance
Ten men and two men saw the same walls, the same fruit and the same tall warriors, and the difference between them was whether God was counted in the sum. The first hearers of Numbers were the next generation, camped on the plains of Moab and about to try again. For them this chapter was the case file on why their parents were buried in the desert.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The classical reading treats the mission as a concession rather than a command, and it says so at the first verse. Rashi glosses the words send for yourself as "according to your own judgement". He explains that the people had asked for the mission, which he takes from Deuteronomy 1:22. God answered that He had already told them the land was good, on the evidence of Exodus 3:17 (Rashi on Numbers 13:2:2, citing Sotah 34b). Rashi is quoted in this row from the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, which the corpus marks public domain. He also reads the placing of the chapter as an indictment. It follows Miriam's punishment to show how grave the spies' sin was, since they had watched what slander cost her and learned nothing from it (Rashi on Numbers 13:2:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 5). The men themselves were worthy at the time they were chosen, because the word Scripture uses for them carries worth wherever it stands (Rashi on Numbers 13:3:2). Ramban notices that the list of the twelve follows neither the standards nor the order of birth. He reads it as an order of personal standing, the most honoured named first. The same holds for the princes who would divide the land (Ramban on Numbers 13:4:1, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban, translated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, New York, 1971 to 1976).
Moses' preparation is read as foresight. The new name he gives Hoshea is taken as a prayer, that God might save him from the counsel of the spies (Rashi on Numbers 13:16:1, citing Sotah 34b). Sending them up by the south is read as a merchant's method. The south was the poorest part of the land, and a seller shows the inferior goods before the best (Rashi on Numbers 13:17:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 6). The questions Moses gives them are read as questions about what a country does to the people it raises, some breeding strong men and some weak, some many and some few (Rashi on Numbers 13:18:1). His question about trees carries the reading a Christian reader is least likely to expect. Rashi takes it to ask whether there is a righteous man among them whose merits shield the place (Rashi on Numbers 13:20:1, citing Bava Batra 15a, a locator the corpus carries).
The route and the days are worked out as geography and arithmetic. Rashi traces their path along the southern boundary from its eastern corner to the sea, and then north along the coast toward Hamath, in the shape of the Greek letter gamma. He takes the boundaries from Numbers 34:7 and 8 (Rashi on Numbers 13:21:1). The forty days are too few for the distance on his own reckoning, four hundred parasangs by four hundred at ten parasangs a day. He answers that God shortened the road for them, because He already knew the decree of a day for a year that would follow (Rashi on Numbers 13:25:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 8). The visit to Hebron is given to Caleb alone. He prostrated himself on the graves of the patriarchs and prayed to be kept from his colleagues' counsel, and Rashi supports it from Deuteronomy 1:36 and Judges 1:20 (Rashi on Numbers 13:22:1, citing Sotah 34b). The branch and the cluster are read as one thing rather than two, a vine branch with the cluster hanging from it (Rashi on Numbers 13:23:1).
The report itself is read as a lie built on a true opening. Rashi takes the doubled verb of their return to mean that they set out with the same evil plan they came back with (Rashi on Numbers 13:26:1, citing Sotah 35a). He explains the praise of the land as the groundwork of the slander. His words: "because no fabricated statement in which one does not say at least some true words at first can in the end be maintained" (Rashi on Numbers 13:27:1). Amalek is named first to frighten a people already burned by Amalek (Rashi on Numbers 13:29:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 9). The heaviest reading falls on one word. Where the spies say the people are stronger than we, the sages read the Hebrew as stronger than He. They take the sentence as spoken against God Himself (Rashi on Numbers 13:31:1, citing Sotah 35a and Arakhin 15a, a locator the corpus carries). Their claim that the land eats its inhabitants is granted as a fact and turned around. They saw burials everywhere because God had filled the Canaanites' hands with mourning, so that they would take no notice of the spies (Rashi on Numbers 13:32:1, citing Sotah 35a). The giants of the last verse Rashi identifies with the Anakim. He traces them to Shemchazai and Azael, who fell from heaven in the generation of Enosh, on the authority of Targum Jonathan on Genesis 6:4 (Rashi on Numbers 13:33:1). That last identification is the teaching of the rabbis and of the Targum, and this site reports it as theirs rather than as the reading of the text. Sforno comments at 13:4:1 and Ibn Ezra at 13:24:1. The corpus carries no English text for either under its licence, so both stand here cited and unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here and never quoted. The Talmudic ones are six. Arakhin 15b:4 and Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:1 are anchored on the third verse, and Bava Batra 15a:14 on the twentieth. Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 9:6:3 stands over the report itself, Arakhin 15a:12 on the thirty-first and Avot DeRabbi Natan 9:2 on the thirty-second.
The midrashic locators run to thirty-four. Bamidbar Rabbah carries fourteen, at 14:1, 16:1, 16:3, 16:5, 16:10, 16:11, 16:13, 16:14, 16:15, 16:16, 16:17, 16:18, 16:19 and 19:32, its sixteenth chapter following the mission from the sending to Caleb's answer. Midrash Aggadah carries seven, at Numbers 13:4:1, 13:5:1, 13:7:1, 13:9:1, 13:14:1, 13:18:1 and 13:28:1, most of them on the twelve men one by one. Midrash Lekach Tov carries four, at Numbers 13:1:1, 13:1:2, 13:4:1 and 13:19:1. Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael carries three, all in Tractate Amalek, at 2:23, 2:27 and 3:8. Bereshit Rabbah carries three, at 1:11, 58:4 on Hebron and the cluster, and 71:3. Two entries in Ein Yaakov stand on the sixth verse, Sotah 1:37 in the Glick Edition and Sotah 1:43, and Aggadat Bereshit 5:2 stands on the eighth. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 13:2:1 to 13:33:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Numbers 13:4:1, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban, translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, New York, 1971 to 1976; Sforno, Sforno on Numbers 13:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text for it; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 13:24:1, cited by ref because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit the text here; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/13.json, the 6 Talmud and 34 Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Twelve men, one ruler from each tribe
Numbers 13:1-2
The LORD gives the order here, while Deuteronomy 1:22 records the people coming to Moses first and asking that men be sent to search out the land. Adam Clarke reads the two accounts together, taking the command in verse 2 as God granting what the people had already asked. Every man sent is a leader among them.
Numbers 13:1
“And the Lord spake - The mission of the spies was first suggested by the Israelites themselves. See Deu 1:22.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Numbers 13:1
“But thus we ruin ourselves by giving more credit to the reports and representations of sense than to divine revelation; we walk by sight, not by faith; whereas, if we will receive the witness of men, without doubt the witness of God is greater.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The command names the land as the LORD's gift before any man of Israel has seen it. The spies are sent to look at a gift. Calvin says the ten tried, as far as in them lay, to bring the promise and the grace of God to nothing.
Numbers 13:2
“Send thou men, that they may search - It appears from Deu 1:19-24 that this was done in consequence of the request of the people, after the following address of Moses: “And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness - and we came unto Kadesh-Barnea; and I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:2
“Their names are enumerated, in perpetual remembrance of their ignominy, except in the case of two, Joshua and Caleb; for it was just that their crime should be handed down to all ages, and that the infamy of their perfidiousness should never be blotted out, since they endeavored, as far as in them lay, to bring to naught the promise and the grace of God.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Numbers 13:3-4
The twelve set out from the Wilderness of Paran, and the men were leaders of the Israelites. Calvin says the names are written down in perpetual remembrance, since ten of the twelve are named here only to be condemned by what they say at verse 31. The roll opens with Shammua of Reuben in birth order, though Numbers 2:3 had put Judah at the head of the camp.
Numbers 13:3
“And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord,.... By his power, permission, and leave, as Jarchi, that there might be no delay through his means: sent them from the wilderness of Paran; from Rithmah or Kadeshbarnea, which seem to be one and the same place in that wilderness: this, as before observed, was on the twenty ninth day of Sivan: See Gill on Num 13:1, all those were heads of the children of Israel; were not mean and vulgar men, but persons of rule, who bore some office of magistracy ant government among the people in their respective tribes.”
Reuben's man leads the roll and is never mentioned again. Numbers 32:8-9 has Moses recall this sending from Kadesh-barnea when Reuben and Gad ask to settle east of the Jordan. Calvin says the names stand in perpetual remembrance of the ten men's ignominy.
Numbers 13:4
“And these were their names, of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:4
“This was designed for the best, but it proved to have this ill effect that the quality of the persons occasioned the evil report they brought up to be the more credited and the people to be the more influenced by it. Some think that they are all named for the sake of two good ones that were among them, Caleb and Joshua.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 13:5-10
This roll follows neither the camp of Numbers 2 nor the census of Numbers 1, since Zebulun stands seventh here and fifth there. Caleb at verse 6 and Hoshea at verse 8 are named with nothing to set them apart from the ten. Matthew Henry suggests the roll is kept for the sake of the two good men in it.
Numbers 13:5
“Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
Caleb stands for Judah, and Numbers 32:12 and Joshua 14:6 call him the Kenizzite. Joshua 15:13 gives him Hebron as his portion among the people of Judah, the city he came to on this errand at verse 22. Calvin sets him and Joshua apart from the ten.
Numbers 13:6
“Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
This Joseph is a man of Issachar. The tribe of the patriarch Joseph is counted through his two sons, Ephraim at verse 8 and Manasseh at verse 11. Gill describes the twelve as heads who held some office of rule in their tribes.
Numbers 13:7
“Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
Hoshea is listed under his birth name, which Clarke glosses as salvation, before verse 16 records the name Moses gave him. First Chronicles 7:20-27 traces the line of Ephraim down to Nun and Joshua. The two faithful spies come from Judah and Ephraim.
Numbers 13:8
“Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
The twelve spies are different men from the tribal chiefs of Numbers 1:5-15, where Benjamin's chief was Abidan son of Gideoni. Gill calls them persons of rule who bore some office of magistracy. Palti son of Raphu appears only here.
Numbers 13:9
“Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
Moses retells the choosing at Deuteronomy 1:23 and says the plan seemed good to him, so he took one man from each tribe. Clarke reads that account together with this chapter, God granting what the people had asked. Every tribe had a witness of its own.
Numbers 13:10
“Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
Numbers 13:11-15
Levi is absent, and Joseph is divided into Ephraim at verse 8 and Manasseh here, which holds the number at twelve as the census did at Numbers 1:10. Adam Clarke notes that the Hebrew letters of Sethur at verse 13 add to six hundred and sixty-six, then calls his own observation useless. The roll closes with Gad.
Numbers 13:11
“Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
Verses 12 to 15 name the men of the four tribes descended from the maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah, whose births Genesis 30:1-13 records. Dan and Naphtali are sons of Bilhah, and Asher and Gad are sons of Zilpah. Their tribes close the roll together.
Numbers 13:12
“Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
The father of Asher's spy bears the name Michael, which means Who is like God, and this is its first appearance in the Bible. Daniel 10:13 later gives the name to one of the chief princes of heaven. Sethur himself appears only here.
Numbers 13:13
“Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:13
“Sethur, the son of Michael - It would have been strange had the numerous searches after the explanation of the mystical number 666, Rev 13:18; Rev 17:5, met with nothing to their purpose in the name of this son of Michael. סתור Sethur, from סתר sathar, to hide or conceal, signifies hidden or mysterious, and includes in it the numerical letters of the No. 666: ס60, + ת400, + ו6, + ר200, = 666. But of what utility can such expositions be to any subject of history or theology?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The ten died by plague at Numbers 14:37, so Numbers 34:16-29 names a new set of tribal leaders to divide the land. Caleb alone of this roll returns among them, for Judah at Numbers 34:19. Calvin says the infamy of the ten was never blotted out.
Numbers 13:14
“Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
Geuel of Gad completes the twelve. Levi sends no man, since Numbers 18:20-24 gives the Levites no inheritance in the land the others were sent to see. Gill notes that each man sent was a head among his people.
Numbers 13:15
“Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. See Gill on Num 13:4.”
Moses renames Hoshea as Joshua, setting a letter of the divine name before a word for salvation, which Matthew Henry reads as a prayer turned into a promise. Exodus 17:9 already calls him Joshua, and Clarke names that difficulty rather than smoothing it over. The Greek New Testament carries the name as Jesus.
Numbers 13:16
“And Moses called Oshea Jehoshua - Oshea, Heb. הושע should be written Hoshea: the word signifies saved, or a savior, or salvation; but יהושע, he shall save, or the salvation of God; a letter, says Calmet, of the incommunicable name of God, being added to his former name. This was not the first time in which he had the name Joshua; see Exo 17:9 (note), and the note there. Some suppose he had this change of name in consequence of his victory over Amalek; see Exo 17:13, Exo 17:14.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:16
“And the same [Moses] by divine inspiration foresaw the name Jesus very clearly and again also endowed this with special privilege. The name of Jesus, which had never been uttered among men before it was made known to Moses, Moses applied first to this one alone. He knew that Joshua, again as a type and a symbol, would receive the rule over all after Moses' death. His successor, at any rate, had never before used the title Jesus. He had been called by another name, Auses, which his parents had bestowed upon him.”
Eusebius of Caesarea · written before 339 · ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 1.3patristic
Go see whether the land is fat or lean
Numbers 13:17-20
The brief is a set of questions about the land and its people, strong or weak, few or many, good or bad. Every one is answered accurately at verses 27 to 29, and the quarrel at verse 31 is over what the answers mean. Moses adds Be courageous, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place the season for the first ripe grapes in August.
Numbers 13:17
“Southward - Rather, “by the Negeb,” or south-country; a well-defined tract of territory forming the southernmost and least fertile portion of the land of Canaan and of the subsequent inheritance of Judah. It extended northward from Kadesh to within a few miles of Hebron, and from the Dead Sea westward to the Mediterranean (see especially Jos 15:21-32). Into the mountain - The hill-country of southern and central Canaan, mostly within the borders of Judah and Ephraim.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:17
“Get you up this way . . . , and go up into the mountain--Mount Seir (De 1:2), which lay directly from Sinai across the wilderness of Paran, in a northeasterly direction into the southern parts of the promised land.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Each question offers a pair, strong or weak, few or many, and every question measures the land and its people. The outcome is left to the promise of verse 2. Barnes traces the route through the Negev into the hill country of Judah and Ephraim, where these people lived.
Numbers 13:18
“See the land, what it is - What sort of a Country it is; how situated; its natural advantages or disadvantages. And the people - whether they be strong or weak - Healthy, robust, hardy men; or little, weak, and pusillanimous.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The question of open camps or fortifications asks how the cities could be taken, and verse 28 answers large and fortified. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set the route northeast from Paran into the southern parts of the land. Deuteronomy 1:28 has the people remember walls reaching the sky.
Numbers 13:19
“In tents - i. e. in open unwalled villages.”
Moses tells the spies to be courageous, and the same charge comes back to Joshua four times in Joshua 1 before he crosses the Jordan. The fruit let the camp taste the land before entering it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note two later gatherings of grapes.
Numbers 13:20
“Now the time was the time of the first grapes--This was in August, when the first clusters are gathered. The second are gathered in September, and the third in October.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Forty days, and a cluster carried on a pole
Numbers 13:21-22
They search from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath, and at Hebron meet Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai by name. Joshua 15:14 records Caleb driving out those same three, so one of the two faithful men finished that business later. Clarke reads the note on Zoan in Egypt as an answer to Egyptian claims to the oldest cities.
Numbers 13:21
“Zin - In the south of Canaan, differing from the wilderness of Sin, which was nigh unto Egypt. To Hamath - From the south they passed through the whole land to the northern parts of it; Rehob was a city in the northwest part, Hamath, a city in the northeast.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:21
“The wilderness of Zin was the northeastern portion of the wilderness of Paran. Rehob (“mod.” Khurbeh) was probably the Beth-rehob of Jdg 18:28, near Dan-Laish; and apparently to the north of it, since it gave its name to a Syrian kingdom 2Sa 8:3. The southern approach to Hamath from the plain of Coele-Syria, lay between those two ranges of Lebanon called Libanus and Antilibanus. A low screen of hills connects the northernmost points of these two ranges; and through this screen the Orontes bursts from the upper Coele-Syrian hollow into the open plain of Hamath.”
Hebron held the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham bought his first ground in Canaan and where the patriarchs lay buried, as Genesis 23:19 and 49:29-31 record. The Hebrew verb for came is singular. Wesley reads the survey of this part as left to Caleb.
Numbers 13:22
“Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt - The Zoan of the Scriptures is allowed to be the Tanis of the heathen historians, which was the capital of Lower Egypt. Some think it was to humble the pride of the Egyptians, who boasted the highest antiquity, that this note concerning the higher antiquity of Hebron was introduced by Moses.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:22
“For the spies distributed their work among them, and went either severally, or by pairs; and it seems the survey of this part was left to Caleb. Anak - A famous giant, whole children these are called, either more generally, as all giants sometimes were, or rather more specially because Arbah, from whom Hebron was called Kiriath-arbah, was the father of Anak, Josh. xv, 13.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 13:23-24
One cluster is carried on a pole between two men, so the evidence for the promise rides home on the shoulders of the men who will advise against it. Albert Barnes reads Eshcol as an older place name, since Genesis 14:13 names an Amorite Eshcol at Hebron, taken up in a new sense. Clement of Alexandria read the cluster as the Word crushed for us, a reading of the fathers.
Numbers 13:23
“The brook of Eshcol is by some identified with the rich valley immediately to the north of Hebron; (but by others with Wady Hanein to the south of Hebron). The valley was, in all likelihood, originally named after one of the three chiefs who were confederate with Abraham Gen 14:24; but, as often came to pass, the Israelites, wittingly or unwittingly, took up in a new and significant sense the name which they found; and to them the valley thus became the Valley of the Cluster. Bunches of grapes are found in Palestine of many pounds weight.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:23
“Upon a staff - Either for the weight of it, considering the, length of the way they were to carry it, or for the preservation of it whole and entire. In those eastern and southern countries there are vines and grapes of an extraordinary bigness as Strabo and Pliny affirm.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 32:9 remembers Eshcol as the valley where the fathers saw the land and then discouraged the hearts of the Israelites. Deuteronomy 1:25 gives the other half, the report that the land the LORD was giving was good. Barnes renders the name the Valley of the Cluster.
Numbers 13:24
“Later on, a sacred vine put forth a cluster of grapes that was prophetic. To those who had been led by the Educator to a place of rest after their wanderings it was a sign, for the great cluster of grapes is the Word crushed on our account. The Word desired that the "blood of the grape" be mixed with water as a symbol that his own blood is an integral element in salvation.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Instructor Book 2patristic
Numbers 13:25-26
Forty days out, and Numbers 14:34 turns those forty days into forty years at the rate of a year for a day. They come back to Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran and report to Moses, Aaron and the whole congregation at once, so the camp hears the account at the same moment the leaders do. John Gill records the Jewish tradition placing the return on the eighth or the ninth of Ab, the day later mourning fixed on.
Numbers 13:25
“And they returned from searching the land after forty days. The Targum of Jonathan adds, on the eighth day of the month Ab, which answers to part of July and part of August; so that this must be towards the latter end of July: some Jewish writers (k) say it was the ninth of Ab; hence the tradition, that it was decreed on the ninth of Ab concerning their fathers, that they should not enter into the land (l). (k) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. (l) Misn. Taanith, c. 4. sect. 7.”
A good land: but we were as grasshoppers
Kadesh here is Kadesh-barnea, the place Deuteronomy 1:19 names as the end of the march from Horeb. Wesley distinguishes it from the Kadesh of the fortieth year at Numbers 33:36-38, and Barnes gives two proposed sites, Ain-el-Weibeh in the Arabah and Ain-Gadis. The fruit was shown to everyone.
Numbers 13:26
“Kadesh - Kadesh-barnea, which some confound with Kadesh in the wilderness of Sin, into which they came not 'till the fortieth year after their coming out of Egypt, as appears from chap. xxxiii, 37, 38, whereas they were in this Kadesh in the second year, and before they received the sentence of their forty years abode in the wilderness.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 13:26
“Kadesh is usually identified with Ain-el-Weibeh, which lies in the Arabah, about 10 miles north of the place in which Mount Hor abuts on that valley, (or with Ain-Gadis in Jebel Magrah).”
Numbers 13:27-29
The report opens by confirming the promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, as God had said at Exodus 3:8. Then comes Nevertheless, and everything after it is also true, from the fortified cities to the descendants of Anak. Matthew Henry notes that even the discouraging men owned the land was what God said, which makes verse 32 a different kind of speech.
Numbers 13:27
“God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, and the evil spies themselves own that it is such a land. Thus even out of the mouth of adversaries will God be glorified and the truth of his promise attested.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The descendants of Anak were a byword by Deuteronomy 9:2, where Moses repeats the saying that no one can stand against them. Deuteronomy 9:3 answers with the LORD as a consuming fire. Matthew Henry notes that the report still owned the land as God described it.
Amalek comes first in the list, the people Israel had already beaten at Rephidim in Exodus 17:8-13. Wesley takes the sea as the Dead Sea beside the Jordan, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place Canaanites by the Mediterranean and along the Jordan. Every quarter is named as held.
Numbers 13:29
“By the sea - Not the mid-land sea, which is commonly understood by that expression, but the salt or dead sea, as appears, 1. Because it is that sea which is next to Jordan, 2.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Caleb has to quiet the people first, which shows how the room had already turned. He disputes none of the facts and answers, We must go up and take possession of the land, and Numbers 14:9 gives his ground: the LORD is with us. Matthew Henry reads the difficulty as shrinking before a living faith in the power and promise of God.
Numbers 13:30
“Difficulties that lie in the way of salvation dwindle and vanish before a lively active faith in the power and promise of God. All things are possible, if they be but promised, to him that believes.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 13:31-32
Their argument is one comparison, they are stronger than we are, which leaves God out of the sum. The land flowing with milk and honey at verse 27 becomes a land that devours its inhabitants, and Numbers 14:37 records a plague on the men who brought out the bad report. Albert Barnes reads the phrase as a country open to attack on every side.
Numbers 13:31
“Were not the hosts of Israel very numerous? 600,000 effective men, well marshalled and modelled, closely embodied, and entirely united in interest and affection, constituted as formidable an army as perhaps was ever brought into the field; many a less has done more than perhaps the conquering of Canaan was, witness Alexander's army.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The first account went to Moses at verse 27, and this one goes to the Israelites directly. The claim works against itself, since a land that devours its people has bred men great in stature. Numbers 14:36 says this report made the whole congregation grumble.
Numbers 13:32
“A land that eateth up ... - i. e. it is a land which from its position is exposed to incessant attacks from one quarter and another, and so its occupants must be always armed and watchful.”
The word Nephilim stands in Genesis 6:4 and in this verse alone in the Hebrew Bible. The ten report how they looked to themselves, like grasshoppers in our own sight, and then assert how they looked to others, a claim about another man's mind. Adam Clarke grants that they had seen a large and warlike people, since Joshua and Caleb never denied it.
Numbers 13:33
“There we saw the giants - נפלים nephilim. It is evident that they had seen a robust, sturdy, warlike race of men, and of great stature; for the asserted fact is not denied by Joshua or Caleb. Tales of gigantic men are frequent in all countries, but they are generally of such as have lived in times very remote from those in which such tales are told.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, with the roll of the twelve scouts written out inside it, as site classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The roll of the twelve, one man to a tribe | Verses 4 to 15 name twelve men, each with his father and his tribe. The tribal order in this roll matches neither the camp of Numbers 2 nor the census list of Numbers 1, since Zebulun stands seventh here and fifth there. Levi is absent and Joseph is divided into Ephraim and Manasseh, which holds the number at twelve. Matthew Henry suggests the whole roll is preserved for the sake of the two good men in it, since the other ten are never named again after this chapter.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Numbers 13:5-10, as this chapter's exposition note cites it. | Numbers 13:4-15, Numbers 13:16 |
| The brief, asked as pairs of opposites | Moses speaks to the twelve at verses 17 to 20 and puts the errand as questions in pairs. He asks after the strength of the people and after their number. He asks whether the land is good, and whether its cities have walls or stand as open camps. He asks after the soil and after the trees. Every one of those questions is answered accurately at verses 27 to 29. The quarrel at verse 31 is over what the answers mean.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Numbers 13:18, as this chapter's exposition note cites it. | Numbers 13:17-20, Numbers 13:27-29 |
| Two names the chapter stops to explain | At verse 16 Moses changes Hoshea to Joshua, setting a letter of the divine name in front of a word meaning salvation. Matthew Henry puts the change as a prayer turned into a promise. At verses 23 and 24 the Valley of Eshcol is named from the cluster of grapes cut there, since the word behind the name is the word for a cluster. The chapter explains both names in the line that gives them.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Numbers 13:16, as this chapter's exposition note cites it. | Numbers 13:16, Numbers 13:23-24 |
| Going up, said six times over | The words go up, went up and gone up stand six times in the Berean text of this chapter. Moses opens the errand with it at verse 17 and the scouts do it at verses 21 and 22. Caleb uses it at verse 30 for the thing that must happen now. The ten use it at verse 31 for the thing that cannot happen at all, so one phrase carries both answers. | Numbers 13:17, Numbers 13:21, Numbers 13:22, Numbers 13:30, Numbers 13:31 |
| The land as God names it and as the ten name it | The chapter opens at verse 2 with the land of Canaan, which God says He is giving to the Israelites. It closes at verse 32 with a land that devours its inhabitants. At verse 27 the same men confirm the promise word for word, that it flows with milk and honey, as God had said at Exodus 3:8 and 3:17. The opening description and the closing one are laid over the same country.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Numbers 13:27-29, as this chapter's exposition note cites it. | Numbers 13:2, Numbers 13:27, Numbers 13:32 |
The historical value
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter carries dates and places a reader can test. Verse 22 dates the building of Hebron seven years earlier than the building of Zoan in Egypt. Adam Clarke identifies Zoan as the Tanis of the heathen historians, the capital of Lower Egypt, and records the view that the note was set here to humble Egyptian claims of the highest antiquity. Verse 20 dates the errand to the season of the first ripe grapes, which Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place in August.
The places are still argued over. Albert Barnes identifies Kadesh with Ain-el-Weibeh in the Arabah, about ten miles north of the point where Mount Hor meets that valley, and names Ain-Gadis in Jebel Magrah as the other candidate. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report the valley and its sloping hills still covered with vineyards, and the fruit still answering to its old reputation.
The debated concept
Verse 33 uses the word Nephilim, which stands in Genesis 6:4 and in this verse and in no other place in the Hebrew Bible. The site's historical layer for this chapter states the house position plainly. The sons of God of Genesis 6 were fallen angelic beings. That is the view held by the earliest Jewish and Christian interpreters, and it is reflected in 2 Peter and Jude. The same file names the alternative as a longstanding and serious position, that the sons of God were the godly line of Seth. The fuller presentation stands at /featured/watchers-nephilim.
What the ten men actually saw is a separate question. Adam Clarke grants that they had seen a sturdy and warlike race of men of great stature. He points out that Joshua and Caleb both let that part of the report stand. Verse 32 calls the land one that devours its inhabitants. Albert Barnes reads that phrase as a country exposed to incessant attacks from one quarter and another, which the men could have meant honestly. The chapter's exposition note sets the Hebrew word dibbah, a word for slander, against that reading, and Numbers 14:36-37 charges the ten with bringing up a slander upon the land.
The New Testament's use
The name given at verse 16 is carried into the Greek New Testament as Jesus, and the King James prints Jesus for Joshua at Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8. Exodus 17:9 and Exodus 24:13 already call the man Joshua, so the narrative uses the new name before it records the giving of it, and Adam Clarke names that difficulty rather than smoothing it over.
The divine connection
The fruit is the part of the report nobody disputes. One cluster takes two men and a staff, and the pomegranates and figs come back with it. The evidence for the promise is carried home on the shoulders of the men who advise against acting on it. Clement of Alexandria, in The Instructor, read the great cluster as the Word crushed for us. That is a reading of the fathers and the text itself makes no such statement.
Keep studying
Studies6
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours and Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm.
The form and classifications
John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, on Numbers 13:3-4, as this chapter's exposition note cites it and The Numbers book guide of this site, `src/components/book/guides/numbers/NumbersGuide.tsx`, where movement II, Sinai to Kadesh, the Old Generation's Collapse, is typed at 10:11 to 20:13.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.