Numbers 13:21

So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) From the wilderness of Zin.—The name of the wilderness of Zin, in which Kadesh was situated, appears to have been given to the northern or northeastern part of the wilderness of Paran. Comp. Numbers 20:1; Numbers 27:14; Numbers 33:36; Numbers 34:3-4; Deuteronomy 32:51; Joshua 15:1; Joshua 15:3.

Unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.—Or, unto Rehob, at the entrance of Hamath. Rehob is supposed to be identical with the Beth-rehob of Judges 18:28, in the tribe of Naphtali, which was near Dan-Laish. “The entrance of Hamath” formed the northern boundary of the land assigned to the Israelites (Numbers 34:8).

Benson Commentary

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 north-west part, Hamath a city in the north-east.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:21-25 The searchers of the land brought a bunch of grapes with them, and other fruits, as proofs of the goodness of the country; which was to Israel both the earnest and the specimen of all the fruits of Canaan. Such are the present comforts we have in communion with God, foretastes of the fulness of joy we expect in the heavenly Canaan. We may see by them what heaven is.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The wilderness of Zin was the northeastern portion of the wilderness of Paran.

Rehob ("mod." Khurbeh) was probably the Beth-rehob of Judges 18:28, near Dan-Laish; and apparently to the north of it, since it gave its name to a Syrian kingdom 2 Samuel 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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21-24. So they … searched the land—They advanced from south to north, reconnoitering the whole land.

the wilderness of Zin—a long level plain, or deep valley of sand, the monotony of which is relieved by a few tamarisk and rethem trees. Under the names of El Ghor and El Araba, it forms the continuation of the Jordan valley, extending from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba.

Rehob—or, Beth-rehob, was a city and district situated, according to some, eastward of Sidon; and, according to others, it is the same as El Hule, an extensive and fertile champaign country, at the foot of Anti-libanus, a few leagues below Paneas.

as men come to Hamath—or, "the entering in of Hamath" (2Ki 14:25), now the valley of Balbeck, a mountain pass or opening in the northern frontier, which formed the extreme limit in that direction of the inheritance of Israel. From the mention of these places, the route of the scouts appears to have been along the course of the Jordan in their advance; and their return was by the western border through the territories of the Sidonians and Philistines.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The wilderness of Zin, in the south of Canaan, Numbers 34:3 Joshua 15:3; differing from the wilderness of Sin, which was nigh unto Egypt, Exodus 16:1.

To Hamath; i.e. from the south they passed through the whole land even to the northern parts of it,

Rehob, a city in the northwest part, Joshua 19:28 Judges 1:31; and Hamath, a city in the north-east part, Joshua 19:35 Ezekiel 47:17. And that they might more expeditiously and securely perform this office, it is probable that they divided themselves into several shall parties, and informed themselves not only by their eye, but also by their ear, and the information of persons, of whom they inquired about the nature and condition of their land.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So they went up and searched the land,.... Went up the mountains as they were directed, and passed through the whole land; diligently inquired into everything material belonging to it, according to their instructions, and made their observations on it, and on the inhabitants, and their habitations:

from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath; this wilderness, from whence they went, seems to be the same with the wilderness of Paran, called Zin; perhaps from the multitude of thorns in it; but different from the wilderness of Sin, Exodus 16:1, which was nearer Egypt; but this was on the south quarter of the land of Canaan, along by the coast of Edom, Numbers 34:3; Rehob, they are said to come to first from thence, was in the tribe of Asher in later times, Joshua 19:28; and lay to the north or northwest of the land of Canaan. Jerom says (r), that in his times there was a village called Rooba, four miles from Scythopolis. Hamath was the northern boundary of the land of Israel, and was in the tribe of Naphtali, when it came into the hands of the Israelites, and lay to the northeast, as the former place to the northwest, Numbers 34:7; so that their direction, as they went, was south and north, and west and east: their journey is described by Jarchi thus; they went on the borders of it, length and breadth, in the form of the capital of the letter "gamma"; they went on the south border from the east corner to the west corner, as Moses commanded them: "get you up this way southward", Numbers 13:17; the way of the southeast border unto the sea, which is the western border; and from thence they returned, and went on all the western border by the sea shore, until they came to Hamath, which is by Mount Hor, at the northwest corner; but Hamath was on the northeast; nor did they go thither, it was too far off for them, but they went as far as Rehob, which was "as men go to Hamath", as it should be rendered, that is, it lay in the way to Hamath.

(r) De loc. Heb. fol. 94. A.

Geneva Study Bible

So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of {e} Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.

(e) Which was in the wilderness of Paran.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. the wilderness of Zin] The geographical statements regarding the tracts south of Judah are vague. In Numbers 13:26 Paran and Kadesh are placed by the compiler in juxtaposition, but in Numbers 20:1 Zin and Kadesh. See prelim, note on ch. 20.

Rehob] Probably the same as Beth-rehob (Jdg 18:28) near the sources of the Jordan.

the entrance of Hamath] Hamath (a district mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions) lay to the north of Palestine; and the ‘entrance’ to it seems to have been a well-known pass, formed by a depression between Lebanon and Hermon. It was, according to P , a point on the northern border of Israel’s possessions in Canaan (Numbers 34:8).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - From the wilderness of Zin. The extreme southern boundary of the promised land (Numbers 34:3, 4; Joshua 15:1, 3). There seems to be but one marked natural feature which could have been chosen for that purpose - the broad sandy depression called the Wady Murreh, which divides the mountain mass of the Azazimeh from the Rakhmah plateau, the southern extremity of the highlands of Judah. The plain of Kudes communicates with it at its upper or western end, and maybe counted a part of it. Unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. Septuagint, ἕως Ροὸβ εἰσπορευομένων Αἰμάθ. Hamath, now Hamah, was in Greek times Epiphaneia, on the Orontes, outside the limits of Jewish rule. The southern entrance to it lay between the ranges of Libanus and Anti-libanus (see note on Numbers 34:8). The Rehob here mentioned is not likely to have been either of the Rehobs in the territory of Asher (Joshua 19:28-30), but the Beth-rehob further to the east, and near to where Dan-Laish was afterwards built (Judges 18:28). It lies on the route to Hamath, and was at one time a place of some importance in the possession of the Syrians (2 Samuel 10:6). Numbers 13:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Journey of the Spies; Their Return, and Report. - Numbers 13:21. In accordance with the instructions they had received, the men who had been sent out passed through the land, from the desert of Zin to Rehob, in the neighbourhood of Hamath, i.e., in its entire extent from south to north. The "Desert of Zin" (which occurs not only here, but in Numbers 20:1; Numbers 27:14; Numbers 33:36; Numbers 34:3-4; Deuteronomy 32:51, and Joshua 15:1, Joshua 15:3) was the name given to the northern edge of the great desert of Paran, viz., the broad ravine of Wady Murreh, which separates the lofty and precipitous northern border of the table-land of the Azazimeh from the southern border of the Rakhma plateau, i.e., of the southernmost plateau of the mountains of the Amorites (or the mountains of Judah), and runs from Jebel Madarah (Moddera) on the east, to the plain of Kadesh, which forms part of the desert of Zin (cf. Numbers 27:14; Numbers 33:36; Deuteronomy 32:51), on the west. The south frontier of Canaan passed through this from the southern end of the Dead Sea, along the Wady el Murreh to the Wady el Arish (Numbers 34:3). - "Rehob, to come (coming) to Hamath," i.e., where you enter the province of Hamath, on the northern boundary of Canaan, is hardly one of the two Rehobs in the tribe of Asher (Joshua 19:28 and Joshua 19:30), but most likely Beth-rehob in the tribe of Naphtali, which was in the neighbourhood of Dan Lais, the modern Tell el Kadhy (Judges 18:28), and which Robinson imagined that he had identified in the ruins of the castle of Hunin or Honin, in the village of the same name, to the south-west of Tell el Kadhy, on the range of mountains which bound the plain towards the west above Lake Huleh (Bibl. Researches, p. 371). In support of this conjecture, he laid the principal stress upon the fact that the direct road to Hamath through the Wady et Teim and the Bekaa commences here. The only circumstance which it is hard to reconcile with this conjecture is, that Beth-rehob is never mentioned in the Old Testament, with the exception of Judges 18:28, either among the fortified towns of the Canaanites or in the wars of the Israelites with the Syrians and Assyrians, and therefore does not appear to have been a place of such importance as we should naturally be led to suppose from the character of this castle, the very situation of which points to a bold, commanding fortress (see Lynch's Expedition), and where there are still remains of its original foundations built of large square stones, hewn and grooved, and reminding one of the antique and ornamental edifices of Solomon's times (cf. Ritter, Erdkunde, xv. pp. 242ff.). - Hamath is Epiphania on the Orontes, now Hamah (see at Genesis 10:18).

After the general statement, that the spies went through the whole land from the southern to the northern frontier, two facts are mentioned in Numbers 13:22-24, which occurred in connection with their mission, and were of great importance to the whole congregation. These single incidents are linked on, however, in a truly Hebrew style, to what precedes, viz., by an imperfect with Vav consec., just in the same manner in which, in 1 Kings 6:9, 1 Kings 6:15, the detailed account of the building of the temple is linked on to the previous statement, that Solomon built the temple and finished it;

(Note: A comparison of 1 Kings 6, where we cannot possibly suppose that two accounts have been linked together or interwoven, is specially adapted to give us a clear view of the peculiar custom adopted by the Hebrew historians, of placing the end and ultimate result of the events they narrate as much as possible at the head of their narrative, and then proceeding with a minute account of the more important of the attendant circumstances, without paying any regard to the chronological order of the different incidents, or being at all afraid of repetitions, and so to prove how unwarrantable and false are the conclusions of those critics who press such passages into the support of their hypotheses. We have a similar passage in Joshua 4:11., where, after relating that when all the people had gone through the Jordan the priests also passed through with the ark of the covenant (Joshua 4:11), the historian proceeds in Joshua 4:12, Joshua 4:13, to describe the crossing of the two tribes and a half; and another in Judges 20, where, at the very commencement (Judges 20:35), the issue of the whole is related, viz., the defeat of the Benjamites; and then after that there is a minute description in Judges 20:36-46 of the manner in which it was effected. This style of narrative is also common in the historical works of the Arabs.)

so that the true rendering would be, "now they ascended in the south country and came to Hebron (ויּבא is apparently an error in writing for ויּבאוּ), and there were הענק ולידי, the children of Anak," three of whom are mentioned by name. These three, who were afterwards expelled by Caleb, when the land was divided and the city of Hebron was given to him for an inheritance (Joshua 15:14; Judges 1:20), were descendants of Arbah, the lord of Hebron, from whom the city received its name of Kirjath-Arbah, or city of Arbah, and who is described in Joshua 14:15 as "the great (i.e., the greatest) man among the Anakim," and in Joshua 15:13 as the "father of Anak," i.e., the founder of the Anakite family there. For it is evident enough that הענק (Anak) is not the proper name of a man in these passages, but the name of a family or tribe, from the fact that in Numbers 13:33, where Anak's sons are spoken of in a general and indefinite manner, ענק בּני has not the article; also from the fact that the three Anakites who lived in Hebron are almost always called הענק ולידי, Anak's born (Numbers 13:22, Numbers 13:28), and that הענק בּני (sons of Anak), in Joshua 15:14, is still further defined by the phrase הענק ולידי (children of Anak); and lastly, from the fact that in the place of "sons of Anak," we find "sons of the Anakim" in Deuteronomy 1:28 and Deuteronomy 9:2, and the "Anakim" in Deuteronomy 2:10; Deuteronomy 11:21; Joshua 14:12, etc. Anak is supposed to signify long-necked; but this does not preclude the possibility of the founder of the tribe having borne this name. The origin of the Anakites is involved in obscurity. In Deuteronomy 2:10-11, they are classed with the Emim and Rephaim on account of their gigantic stature, and probably reckoned as belonging to the pre-Canaanitish inhabitants of the land, of whom it is impossible to decide whether they were of Semitic origin or descendants of Ham. It is also doubtful, whether the names found here in Numbers 13:21, Numbers 13:28, and in Joshua 15:14, are the names of individuals, i.e., of chiefs of the Anakites, or the names of Anakite tribes. The latter supposition is favoured by the circumstance, that the same names occur even after the capture of Hebron by Caleb, or at least fifty years after the event referred to here. With regard to Hebron, it is still further observed in Numbers 13:22, that it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. Zoan - the Tanis of the Greeks and Romans, the San of the Arabs, which is called Jani, Jane in Coptic writings - was situated upon the eastern side of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, not far from its mouth (see Ges. Thes. p. 1177), and was the residence of Pharaoh in the time of Moses. The date of its erection is unknown; but Hebron was in existence as early as Abraham's time (Genesis 13:18; Genesis 23:2.).