Numbers 13

Numbers 13: Spies Sent into Canaan

The Lord commands Moses to send spies into Canaan, the promised land. One man from each tribe is sent, 12 in all. These men are leaders of their tribes, though they differ from the leaders listed in Numbers  1.

The Spies:
1. From Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;
2. From Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
3. From Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
4. From Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
5. From Ephraim (son of Joseph), Hoshea (renamed Joshua by Moses) son of Nun;
6. From Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
7. From Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
8. From Manasseh (son of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi;
9. From Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
10. From Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
11. From Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
12. From Gad, Geuel son of Machi.

Moses tells the spies to report back on a set of variables, all of them opposites. The literary technique juxtaposes strength and weakness, fruitfulness and barrenness of the people and the land:

• Are the people strong or weak?
• Are there few or many?
• Is the land hood or bad?
• Are the towns walled or fortified?
• Is the land rich or poor? (Good for agriculture and livestock)
• Are there trees or not?

The spies are commanded to bring back some fruit of the land, as it is grape season.

The spies scope out the land of Hebron and find the Anakites there (for a specific list of places, check out Numbers 13.21-23 on BibleMap.org - it's a pretty useful utility for visualizing the geography of the bible).

The spies cut down a cluster of grapes at the Wadi Eshcol (meaning "cluster"), and carry them on a pole between two of them. That's a big cluster of grapes! They also return with pomegranates and figs.

[Grapes. Image Courtesy Wikipedia]

After 40 days (a symbolic, rather than literal, number that refers to a long period of time), the spies return. The spies stand before Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation and show off the fruit, declaring the land flows with milk and honey. However, the people of the land are strong, and live in fortified cities.

The spies have also discovered that the Anakites live in Hebron, the Amalekites live in the Negeb, the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.

A new source picks up here, weaving a new and somewhat contradictory story into the mix.

The people are obviously distressed by this, because the spy Caleb tries to quiet them by saying the Israelites are able to overtake the land. The eleven other spies, however, disagree. They give an unfavorable report of the land (as opposed to the one above of the milk and honey and fruit) and say it is a land "that devours its inhabitants." Furthermore, the people they saw were huge - the Nephilim* themselves! Against them the Israelites seem mere grasshoppers.

God has given the land to the Israelites, but they will have to fight for it. Again, the dialectical tension between God and God's people becomes prominent.

*Giants; in the antediluvian world the Nephilim were the offspring of women that lay with angels.