Numbers 13:19

The scouting mission had a clear military purpose. The spies also needed to gather information about natural resources and food. These things were concerning to the Israelites since they left Egypt (chapter 11; Exodus 16).

Get you up this way . . . , and go up into the mountain--Mount Seir (Deu 1:2), which lay directly from Sinai across the wilderness of Paran, in a northeasterly direction into the southern parts of the promised land.

Here we have, I. Orders given to send spies to search out the land of Canaan. It is here said, God directed Moses to send them (Num 13:1, Num 13:2), but it appears by the repetition of the story afterwards (Deu 1:22) that the motion came originally from the people; they came to Moses, and said, We will send men before us; and it was the fruit of their unbelief. They would not take God's word that it was a good land, and that he would, without fail, put them in possession of it. They could not trust the pillar of cloud and fire to show them the way to it, but had a better opinion of their own politics than of God's wisdom. How absurd was it for them to send to spy out a land which God himself had spied out for them, to enquire the way into it when God himself had undertaken to show them the way! 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. The people making this motion to Moses, he (perhaps not aware of the unbelief at the bottom of it) consulted God in the case, who bade him gratify the people in this matter, and send spies before them: "Let them walk in their own counsels." Yet God was no way accessory to the sin that followed, for the sending of these spies was so far from being the cause of the sin that if the spies had done their duty, and the people theirs, it might have been the confirmation of their faith, and of good service to them.
II. The persons nominated that were to be employed in this service (Num 13:4, etc.), one of each tribe, that it might appear to be the act of the people in general; and rulers, person of figure in their respective tribes, some of the rulers of thousands or hundreds, to put the greater credit upon their embassy. 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. Notice is taken of the change of Joshua's name upon this occasion, Num 13:16. He was Moses's minister, but had been employed, though of the tribe of Ephraim, as general of the forces that were sent out against Amalek. The name by which he was generally called and known in his own tribe was Oshea, but Moses called him Joshua, in token of his affection to him and power over him; and now, it should seem, he ordered others to call him so, and fixed that to be his name henceforward. Oshea signifies a prayer for salvation, Save thou; Joshua signifies a promise of salvation, He will save, in answer to that prayer: so near is the relation between prayers and promises. Prayers prevail for promises, and promises direct and encourage prayers. Some think that Moses designed, by taking the first syllable of the name Jehovah and prefixing it to his name, which turned Hoshea into Jehoshua, to put an honour upon him, and to encourage him in this and all his future services with the assurances of God's presence. Yet after this he is called Hoshea, Deu 32:44. Jesus is the same name with Joshua, and it is the name of our Lord Christ, of whom Joshua was a type as successor to Moses, Israel's captain, and conqueror of Canaan. There was another of the same name, who was also a type of Christ, Zac 6:11. Joshua was the saviour of God's people from the powers of Canaan, but Christ is their Saviour from the powers of hell.
III. The instructions given to those spies. They were sent into the land of Canaan the nearest way, to traverse the country, and to take account of its present state, Num 13:17. Two heads of enquiry were given them in charge, 1. Concerning the land itself: See what that is (Num 13:18, and again, Num 13:19), see whether it be good or bad, and (Num 13:20) whether it be fat or lean. All parts of the earth do not share alike in the blessing of fruitfulness; some countries are blessed with a richer soil than others. Moses himself was well satisfied that Canaan was a very good land, but he sent these spies to bring an account of it for the satisfaction of the people; as John Baptist sent to Jesus, to ask whether he was the Christ, not to inform himself, but to inform those he sent. They must take notice whether the air was healthful or no, what the soil was, and what the productions; and, for the better satisfaction of the people, they must bring with them some of the fruits. 2. Concerning the inhabitants - their number, few or many - their size and stature, whether strong able-bodied men or weak, - their habitations, whether they lived in tents or houses, whether in open villages or in walled towns, - whether the woods were standing as in those countries that are uncultivated, through the unskillfulness and slothfulness of the inhabitants, or whether the woods were cut down, and the country made champaign, for the convenience of tillage. These were the things they were to enquire about. Perhaps there had not been of late years such commerce between Egypt and Canaan as there was in Jacob's time, else they might have informed themselves of these things without sending men on purpose to search. See the advantage we may derive from books and learning, which acquaint those that are curious and inquisitive with the state of foreign countries, at a much greater distance than Canaan was now from Israel, without this trouble and expense.
IV. Moses dismisses the spies with this charge, Be of good courage, intimating, not only that they should be themselves encouraged against the difficulties of this expedition, but that they should bring an encouraging account to the people and make the best of every thing. It was not only a great undertaking they were put upon, which required good management and resolution, but it was a great trust that was reposed in them, which required that they should be faithful.

Numbers 13:1-33

1. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

1. Et loquutus est Jehova ad Mosen, dicendo:

2. Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

2. Mitte tibi viros qui explorent terram Chanaan, quam ego daturus sum filiis Israel, singulos viros de singulis tribubus patrum suorum mittetis, unumquenque principem inter eos.

3 And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.

3. Misit ergo illos Moses e deserto Paran, juxta sermonem Jehovae: et universi ipsi viri principes filiorum Israel erant.

4. And these were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben: Shammua the son of Zaccur.

4. Haec autem sunt nomina eorum. De tribu Ruben, Sammua filius Zachur.

5. Of the tribe of Simeon; Shaphat the son of Hori.

5. De tribu Simeon, Saphat filius Hori.

6. Of the tribe of Judah; Caleb the son of Jephunneh

6. De tribu Jehuda, Caleb filius Jephuneh.

7. Of the tribe of Issachar; Igal the son of Joseph.

7. De tribu Issachar, Igal, filius Joseph.

8. Of the tribe of Ephraim; Oshea the son of Nun.

8. De tribu Ephraim, Hosea filius Nun.

9. Of the tribe of Benjanfin; Palti the son of Raphu.

9. De tribu Benjamin, Palti filius Raphu.

10. Of the tribe of Zehulun; Gaddiel the son of Sodi.

10. De tribu Zebulon, Gaddiel filius Sodi.

11. Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh; Gaddi the son of Susi.

11. De tribu Joseph, de tribu Menasseh, Gaddi filius Susi.

12. Of the tribe of Dan; Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

12. De tribu Dan, Ammiel filius Gemalli.

13. Of the tribe of Asher; Sether the son of Michael.

13. De tribu Aser, Sethur filius Michael.

14. Of the tribe of Naphtali; Nahbi the son of Vophsi.

14. De tribu Nephthali, Nahbi filius Vophsi.

15. Of the tribe of Gad; Geuel the son of Machi.

15. De tribu Gad, Guel filius Machi.

16. These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun, Jehoshua.

16. Haec sunt nomina virorum quos misit Moses ad explorandam terram: et appellavit Moses Hosea filium Nun, Jehosua.

17. And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain;

17. Misit igitur eos Moses ad explorandam terram Chanaan, dicens illis, Ascendite hac per meridiem, et conscendatis montes;

18. And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;

18. Et consideretis terram ipsam qualis sit, et populum qui habitat in ea, utrum fortis sit an debilis, utrum paucus sit an multus.

19. 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;

19. Qualis, inquam, sit terra in qua sit habitator, utrum bona sit an mala: et quales urbes in quibus sit habitator, utrum in castris an in munitionibus.

20. And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not: and be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. (Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.)

20. Qualis rursum terra, utrum pinguis sit an macra: utrum sint in ea arbores an non: et estote forti animo, atque decerpite e fructu terrae. (Dies autem illi erant dies primitiarum uvarum.)

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

21. Ascenderunt igitur, et exploraverunt terram, a deserto Sin usque ad Rehob, ingrediendo Hamath.

22. And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

22. Et ascenderunt per meridiem, et venerunt usque ad Hebron, ibi autem erat Ahiman, Sesai, et Thalmai, filii Anac. Hebron vero septem annis aedificata fuit ante Soan AEgypti.

23. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.

23. Perverterunt itaque usque ad vallem Eschol, et absciderunt illinc palmitem et botrum uvarum unum, et portaverunt illum vecte bini, et de malogranatis et de ficubus.

24. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

24. Locus ille vocatus est Nahal Eschol propter botrum quem absciderunt inde filii Israel.

25. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

25. Reversi sunt ab exploranda terra post quadraginta dies.

26. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

26. Profecti ergo sunt, et venerunt ad Mosen et Aharon, et ad universum coetum filiorum Israel, in desertum Paran in Cades: et retulerunt eis rem, atque universo coetui, ostenderuntque eis fructum terrae.

27. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

27. Narraverunt ergo ei: et dixerunt, Pervenimus ad terram ad quam misisti nos; et certe affluit lacte et melle: et ipse est fructus ejus.

28. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the laud, and the cities are walled, and very great: and, moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.

28. Nisi quod fortis est populus qui incolit cam, et urbes munitae sunt, et magnae admodum: ac filios Enac vidimus illic.

29. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

29. Amalec habitat in terra meridiana: Hitthaeus autem, et Jebusaeus, et Amorrhaeus inhabitant montes: Chananaeus vero habitat juxta mare et ad ripam Jordanis.

30. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

30. Tacere vero fecit Caleb populum ad Mosen, et dixit, Ascendendo ascendamus et possideamus: nam praevalendo praevalebimus contra cam.

31. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

31. At viri qui ascenderant cum eo, dixerunt, Non poterimus ascendere contra populum illum, quia fortior est nobis.

32. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

32. Et detraxerunt terrae quam exploraverunt, apud filios Israel, dicendo, Terra per quam transivimus ut exploraremus eam, terra est quae consumit habitatores suos: et omnis populus quem vidimus in medio ejus, viri procerae staturae sunt.

33. 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.

33. Atque illuc vidimus gigantes filios Enac, e gigantibus. Et fiumus sicut locustae in oculis nostris, sic fuimus in oculis eorum.

And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad,.... Whether the air is good, the climate temperate, and the earth well watered, and has good convenience of springs, fountains, and rivers, and so wholesome or healthful; or otherwise, which is the first thing they were directed to observe, though here put in the second place:

and what cities they be they dwell in, whether in tents or strong holds; whether in tents, as the Israelites now lived, and as the Kedarenes, as Aben Ezra notes, and other Arabians, who encamped in tents, or who dwelt in villages, and unwalled towns, unfortified cities, according to the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; or whether in fortified cities, towns, and garrisons; by which it would appear whether it would be easy to come at them, and fall upon them, or difficult to subdue and conquer them; for if their cities were fortified, it would not be so easy to take them, and would require time. Jarchi thinks, that by this it might be known whether they were men of strength and courage, or whether weak and fearful persons; seeing if they dwelt in villages they were strong men, and depended on their own strength, but if they dwelt in fortified cities, they were weak.

Good or bad, healthful or unwholesome, fruitful or barren.

In tents, as the Arabians did; or in unwalled villages, which, like tents, are exposed to an enemy.

Numbers 13:1-17
Despatch of the Spies of Canaan. - Num 13:1. The command of Jehovah, to send out men to spy out the land of Canaan, was occasioned, according to the account given by Moses in Deu 1:22., by a proposal of the congregation, which pleased Moses, so that he laid the matter before the Lord, who then commanded him to send out for this purpose, "of every tribe of their fathers a man, every one a ruler among them, i.e., none but men who were princes in their tribes, who held the prominent position of princes, i.e., distinguished persons of rank; or, as it is stated in Num 13:3, "heads of the children of Israel," i.e., not the tribe-princes of the twelve tribes, but those men, out of the total number of the heads of the tribes and families of Israel, who were the most suitable for such a mission, though the selection was to be made in such a manner that every tribe should be represented by one of its own chiefs. That there were none of the twelve tribe-princes among them is apparent from a comparison of their names (Num 13:4-15) with the (totally different) names of the tribe-princes (Num 1:3., Num 7:12.). Caleb and Joshua are the only spies that are known. The order, in which the tribes are placed in the list of the names in Num 13:4-15, differs from that in Num 1:5-15 only in the fact that in Num 13:10 Zebulun is separated from the other sons of Leah, and in Num 13:11 Manasseh is separated from Ephraim. The expression "of the tribe of Joseph," in Num 13:11, stands for "of the children of Joseph," in Num 1:10; Num 34:23. At the close of the list it is still further stated, that Moses called Hoshea (i.e., help), the son of Nun, Jehoshua, contracted into Joshua (i.e., Jehovah-help, equivalent to, whose help is Jehovah). This statement does not present any such discrepancy, when compared with Exo 17:9, Exo 17:13; Exo 24:13; Exo 32:17; Exo 33:11, and Num 11:28, where Joshua bears this name as the servant of Moses at a still earlier period, as to point to any diversity of authorship. As there is nothing of a genealogical character in any of these passages, so as to warrant us in expecting to find the family name of Joshua in them, the name Joshua, by which Hosea had become best known in history, could be used proleptically in them all. On the other hand, however, it is not distinctly stated in the verse before us, that this was the occasion on which Moses gave Hosea the new name of Joshua. As the Vav consec. frequently points out merely the order of thought, the words may be understood without hesitation in the following sense: These are the names borne by the heads of the tribes to be sent out as spies, as they stand in the family registers according to their descent; Hosea, however, was named Joshua by Moses; which would not by any means imply that the alteration in the name had not been made till then. It is very probable that Moses may have given him the new name either before or after the defeat of the Amalekites (Exo 17:9.), or when he took him into his service, though it has not been mentioned before; whilst here the circumstances themselves required that it should be stated that Hosea, as he was called in the list prepared and entered in the documentary record according to the genealogical tables of the tribes, had received from Moses the name of Joshua. In Num 13:17-20 Moses gives them the necessary instructions, defining more clearly the motive which the congregation had assigned for sending them out, namely, that they might search out the way into the land and to its towns (Deu 1:22). "Get you up there (זה in the south country, and go up to the mountain." Negeb, i.e., south country, lit., dryness, aridity, from נגב, to be dry or arid (in Syr., Chald, and Samar.). Hence the dry, parched land, in contrast to the well-watered country (Jos 15:19; Jdg 1:15), was the name given to the southern district of Canaan, which forms the transition from the desert to the strictly cultivated land, and bears for the most part the character of a steppe, in which tracts of sand and heath are intermixed with shrubs, grass, and vegetables, whilst here and there corn is also cultivated; a district therefore which was better fitted for grazing than for agriculture, though it contained a number of towns and villages (see at Jos 15:21-32). "The mountain" is the mountainous part of Palestine, which was inhabited by Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites (Num 13:29), and was called the mountains of the Amorites, on account of their being the strongest of the Canaanitish tribes (Deu 1:7, Deu 1:19.). It is not to be restricted, as Knobel supposes, to the limits of the so-called mountains of Judah (Jos 15:48-62), but included the mountains of Israel or Ephraim also (Jos 11:21; Jos 20:7), and formed, according to Deu 1:7, the backbone of the whole land of Canaan up to Lebanon.
Num 13:18-20
They were to see the land, "what it was," i.e., what was its character, and the people that dwelt in it, whether they were strong, i.e., courageous and brave, or weak, i.e., spiritless and timid, and whether they were little or great, i.e., numerically; (Num 13:19) what the land was, whether good or bad, sc., with regard to climate and cultivation, and whether the towns were camps, i.e., open villages and hamlets, or fortified places; also (Num 13:20) whether the land was fat or lean, i.e., whether it had a fertile soil or not, and whether there were trees in it or not. All this they were to search out courageously (התחזק, to show one's self courageous in any occupation), and to fetch (some) of the fruits of the land, as it was the time of the first-ripe grapes. In Palestine the first grapes ripen as early as August, and sometimes even in July (vid., Robinson, ii. 100, ii. 611), whilst the vintage takes place in September and October.