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Numbers 13:19

in Numbers 13

Is the land where they live good or bad? Are the cities where they dwell open camps or fortifications?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds;

KJV

And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;

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This verse in Numbers 13

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

Go up through the Negev and into the hill country

on 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.

This site's exposition

open camps or fortifications

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

In tents - i. e. in open unwalled villages.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented [that the meaning thereof is that they are to see] “if the Land is good, namely that its air is good, and its waters are good.” Then Moses continued, whether it is fat, 24 Further, Verse. meaning “capable of producing wheat” and many fruits.
Ramban: Spain, 1194–1270 · Ramban on Numbers 13:19:1, via Sefaria, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
היש בה עץ WHETHER THERE ARE TREES IN IT [OR NOT] — i.e. whether there is a righteous man amongst them who will protect them by his merits (cf. Bava Batra 15a).
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Numbers 13:20:1, via Sefaria, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וּמָ֣הand what?

    umahH4100 →752 times

  • הָאָ֗רֶץ[is] the land

    haaretzH776 →2504 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • הוּא֙it

    hu'H1931 →1879 times

  • יֹשֵׁ֣ב[is] dwelling

    yoshevH3427 →1079 times

  • בָּ֔הּin <the> it

    bah

  • הֲטוֹבָ֥ה¿ good

    hatovahH2896 →538 times

  • הִ֖וא[is] it

    hi'H1931 →1879 times

  • אִם־or?

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • רָעָ֑הbad

    raahH7451 →662 times

  • וּמָ֣הand what?

    umahH4100 →752 times

  • הֶֽעָרִ֗ים[are] the cities

    hearimH5892 →1090 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • הוּא֙it

    hu'H1931 →1879 times

  • יוֹשֵׁ֣ב[is] dwelling

    yoshevH3427 →1079 times

  • בָּהֵ֔נָּהin them

    bahenah

  • הַבְּמַֽחֲנִ֖ים¿ in camps

    habemachanimH4264 →215 times

  • אִ֥םor?

    ʾimH518 →1069 times

  • בְּמִבְצָרִֽים׃in fortresses

    bemivtzarimH4013 →37 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

1 in all, six open

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Spies Return from the Promised Land — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Spies Return from the Promised Land — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 13 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).

Read on in Numbers 13 →