The Twelve Spies

¹The LORD spoke to Moses and said, ²"Send men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. Choose one leader from each ancestral tribe." ³So Moses obeyed the LORD's command and sent them out from the wilderness of Paran. Every one of these men was a leader among the Israelites. ⁴Here are 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, Oshea son of Nun; ⁹from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; ¹⁰from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; ¹¹Of the tribe of Joseph, specifically from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the 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 Vophsi; ¹⁵and from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. ¹⁶These are the names of the men Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Oshea, the son of Nun, Jehoshua. ¹⁷When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he told them, "Head south from here, then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸Take a good look at the land and the people living there. Find out whether they're strong or weak, and whether there are many of them or just a few. ¹⁹And find out what the land is like where they live, whether it is good or bad, and what kind of cities they inhabit, whether they live in tents or in fortified strongholds. ²⁰See if the soil is fertile or poor, and whether there are trees or not. Be courageous, and bring back some of the land's fruit." It was the season when the first grapes were ripening. ²¹So the men set out and explored the land all the way from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near the entrance to Hamath. ²²They traveled through the southern region and reached Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai — descendants of Anak — were living. (Hebron had been built 7 years before Zoan in Egypt.) ²³When they came to the brook of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes and carried it between two on a staff. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. ²⁴The place was called the brook Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes that the children of Israel cut down from there. ²⁵After 40 days, the men returned from exploring the land. ²⁶They went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. There they gave their report to everyone and showed them the fruit they had brought from the land. ²⁷They told Moses, "We went into the land where you sent us, and it truly does flow with milk and honey — just look at this fruit! ²⁸But the people living there are powerful, and their cities are heavily fortified and enormous. On top of that, we saw descendants of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites live in the southern region. The Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the mountains. The Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan River. ³⁰Caleb quieted the crowd in front of Moses and said, "We should go up right now and take the land! We can absolutely do this!" ³¹But the other men who had gone with him disagreed. "We can't attack those people," they said. "They're far stronger than we are." ³²They spread an evil report among the Israelites about the land they had explored, saying, "The land we scouted devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are of great stature." ³³We even saw the Nephilim there — the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. Standing next to them, we felt like grasshoppers, and that's exactly how they saw us too."