[1] The LORD said to Moses, [2] "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan,
which I give to the people of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers
shall you send a man, every one a leader among them." [3] So Moses sent
them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD,
all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. [4] And these were
their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Sham'mu-a the son of Zaccur; [5]
from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; [6] from the tribe of
Judah, Caleb the son of Jephun'neh; [7] from the tribe of Is'sachar, Igal
the son of Joseph; [8] from the tribe of E'phraim, Hoshe'a the son of Nun;
[9] from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; [10] from the tribe
of Zeb'ulun, Gad'diel the son of Sodi; [11] from the tribe of Joseph (that
is from the tribe of Manas'seh), Gaddi the son of Susi; [12] from the tribe
of Dan, Am'miel the son of Gemal'li; [13] from the tribe of Asher, Sethur
the son of Michael; [14] from the tribe of Naph'tali, Nahbi the son of
Vophsi; [15] from the tribe of Gad, Geu'el the son of Machi. [16] These
were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses
called Hoshe'a the son of Nun Joshua. [17] Moses sent them to spy out the
land of Canaan, and said to them, "Go up into the Negeb yonder, and go up
into the hill country, [18] and see what the land is, and whether the
people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many,
[19] and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether
the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, [20] and whether
the land is rich or poor, and whether there is wood in it or not. Be of
good courage, and bring some of the fruit of the land." Now the time was
the season of the first ripe grapes. [21] So they went up and spied out the
land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. [22]
They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahi'man, She'shai, and
Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years
before Zo'an in Egypt.) [23] And they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and cut
down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried
it on a pole between two of them; they brought also some pomegranates and
figs. [24] That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the
cluster which the men of Israel cut down from there. [25] At the end of
forty days they returned from spying out the land. [26] And they came to
Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the
wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all
the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. [27] And they told
him, "We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and
honey, and this is its fruit. [28] Yet the people who dwell in the land are
strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw
the descendants of Anak there. [29] The Amal'ekites dwell in the land of
the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jeb'usites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill
country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan." [30]
But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once,
and occupy it; for we are well able to overcome it." [31] Then the men who
had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people;
for they are stronger than we." [32] So they brought to the people of
Israel an evil report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The
land, through which we have gone, to spy it out, is a land that devours its
inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.
[33] And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the
Nephilim); and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed
to them."
