Numbers 13
1 And the LORD said to Moses, 2 “ Send out for yourself men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each of their fathers’ tribes send one man who is a leader among them.” 3 So at the consent of the LORD, Moses sent them out from the Wilderness of Paran. All the men were leaders of the Israelites, 4 and these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; 15 and from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. 16 These were the names of the men Moses sent to spy out the land; and Moses gave to Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua. 17 When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he told them, “ Go up through the Negev and into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether its people are strong or weak, few or many. 19 Is the land where they live good or bad? Are the cities where they dwell open camps or fortifications? 20 Is the soil fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous, and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” ( It was the season for the first ripe grapes.) 21 So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. 23 When they came to the Valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs. 24 Because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there, that place was called the Valley of Eshcol. The Reports of the Spies 25 After forty days the men returned from spying out the land, 26 and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit! 28 Nevertheless, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The 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 Jordan.” 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “ We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!” 31 But the men who had gone up with him replied, “ We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!” 32 So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “ The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature. 33 We even saw the Nephilim there — the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”
✦ What the text says
## Summary
Numbers 13 narrates Yahweh's command to send twelve men, one leader per tribe, to scout the land of Canaan. After forty days exploring from the wilderness of Zin to Hebron and the valley of Eshcol, the spies return with fruit and a report: the land is fertile, but its inhabitants and fortified cities appear too strong to overcome — a report Caleb alone contests.
## Key words
*yatur* ("to spy out", H8446) — the qal verb repeated throughout the chapter (vv.2, 16, 17, 21, 25, 32) frames the whole mission as reconnaissance, not conquest, at this stage.
*nasi'* ("leader", H5387) — used in v.2 to specify that each tribal representative must be a chief among his people, not simply any man.
*dibbah* ("bad report", H1681, construct *dibbat*) — in v.32, this noun labels what the majority of spies "bring out" about the land; it carries a negative connotation of slander or discrediting report.
*yahas* ("he silenced", H2013, hiphil) in v.30 — a causative form showing Caleb actively quieting the people's murmuring before Moses, followed by the emphatic infinitive absolute construction *aloh na'aleh* ("we will surely go up", H5927).
*nephilim* (H5303) — a gentilic plural noun in v.33, describing a group associated with the "sons of Anak," left untranslated as a proper designation in the Hebrew.
## What the text says
The chapter's middle section (vv.4–15) consists almost entirely of construct chains: *le-matteh* ("for the tribe of," H4294) followed by a tribal name and *ben* ("son of," H1121) linking each spy to his father. This repetitive genitive structure creates a formal roster rather than narrative prose, listing twelve names systematically by tribe.
The report itself is built on contrastive interrogatives in vv.18–20 — *chazaq...rapheh* ("strong...feeble"), *me'at...rav* ("few...many"), *tovah...ra'ah* ("good...bad") — a paired questioning pattern instructing the spies what categories to observe, which they later answer point by point in vv.27–29 and 32–33. Caleb's response in v.30 uses the infinitive absolute *aloh na'aleh* to intensify the verb "go up," rhetorically countering the other spies' negated imperfect *lo nukal* ("we are not able," v.31) with his own emphatic *yakhol nukhal* ("we will surely prevail").
## Differences between versions
The LXX text supplied here is offset by one verse against the Hebrew and Vulgate throughout the chapter: LXXSWETE's verse 1 corresponds to material preceding MT's chapter opening, and this one-verse shift persists to the end, so LXX "verse 33" contains material equivalent to Hebrew verse 32. Additionally, where the Hebrew of v.33 uses the proper name *nephilim* (H5303) for the group linked to the "sons of Anak," the Greek renders the notion descriptively as ἄνδρες ὑπερμήκεις ("men of very great height") and the Vulgate similarly uses *procerae staturae* ("of tall stature"), rather than transliterating the Hebrew term.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.