Spies Sent Out

1The Lord spoke to Moses: 2“Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a leader among them.” 3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.

4Now these were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; 5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; 9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; 10from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11from the tribe of Joseph, namely, the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi; 12from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 14from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vopshi; 15from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. 16These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.

The Spies’ Instructions

17When Moses sent them to investigate the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev, and then go up into the hill country 18and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, few or many, 19and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or fortified cities, 20and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether or not there are forests in it. And be brave, and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” Now it was the time of year for the first ripe grapes.

The Spies’ Activities

21So they went up and investigated the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, at the entrance of Hamath. 22When they went up through the Negev, they came to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of Anak, were living. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff between two men, as well as some of the pomegranates and the figs. 24That place was called the Eshcol Valley, because of the cluster of grapes that the Israelites cut from there. 25They returned from investigating the land after forty days.

The Spies’ Reports

26They came back to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They reported to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land. 27They told Moses, “We went to the land where you sent us. It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28But the inhabitants are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”

30Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up and occupy it, for we are well able to conquer it.” 31But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!” 32Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through to investigate is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there are of great stature. 33We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them.”