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13 ‎[1] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[2] **Send you men that they may scout **out **the land of Canaan that I am giving to the children of Israel **in order to become familiar with it; **you shall send one man **for every tribe, **each **as a representative **for the tribe of his fathers, every one a prince among them. **They must be leaders and men of stature, whose reports will be accepted and trusted by the members of their tribes. The men chosen were not the actual heads of the tribes, who are listed in the earlier census and at the festivities for the dedication of the altar (1:4–15, 7:12–78). It is possible that those tribal princes were too old for a mission of this nature. The men who were sent as scouts were prominent members of their tribes, but they were younger, probably at the peak of their strength. 1 One of the scouts, Caleb son of Yefuneh, will later state that he was forty years old at the time of this mission. 2
‎[3] **Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the directive of the Lord; all of them were personages; they were heads of the children of Israel. **
‎[4] **These were their names: For the tribe of Reuben, **they sent **Shamua son of Zakur. **
‎[5] **For the tribe of Simeon, Shafat son of Hori. **
‎[6] **For the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Yefuneh. **
‎[7] **For the tribe of Issachar, Yigal son of Joseph. **
‎[8] **For the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshe’a son of Nun. **
‎[9] **For the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Rafu. **
‎[10] **For the tribe of Zebulun, Gadiel son of Sodi. **
‎[11] **For the tribe of Joseph: For the tribe of Manasseh, Gadi son of Susi. **
‎[12] **For the tribe of Dan, Amiel son of Gemali. **
‎[13] **For the tribe of Asher, Setur son of Mikhael. **
‎[14] **For the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vofsi. **
‎[15] **For the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Makhi. **
‎[16] **These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to scout the land. Moses called Hoshe’a son of Nun, Joshua. **The name Hoshe’a means salvation. The addition of the letter *yod *is a reference to God. Hence, the name Joshua, like the related name Isaiah, means may God save.
‎[17] Moses wanted to give the scouts a specifically defined mandate. The information they were asked to provide was strategic rather than tactical; for example, he did not ask them about particular fortifications or roads. Rather,
**Moses sent them to scout the land of Canaan, **and **he said to them: Ascend, **enter the land from **there in the South, and climb the highland. **
‎[18] **You shall see the land, what it is **like in general. And **the people that lives in it, is it strong or is it weak? Are they few or many? **How densely populated is the land?
‎[19] **What is the **type of **land in which it lives, **with regard to its climate and fauna? **Is it **a **good **land **or **a **bad **one? **What are the cities in which it lives? Is it in camps, **unwalled settlements, **or in **cities that have walls as **fortifications? **
‎[20] **What is the **nature of the **land? Is it fat or lean? **How fertile is its soil? Relatively speaking, which areas are more fertile and which ones less so? This information could also be relevant to understanding the locations of major population centers and the natures of the different possible travel routes. **Are there trees in it, or not? **Egypt does not have many natural trees, and some of those that have been growing there have been cut down. By contrast, at this time the entire central region of Canaan is thickly wooded. 3 In addition, Moses instructed them: **You shall strengthen yourselves, and you shall take **samples **from the fruit of the land **and bring them back to show your brethren. At this juncture, **the **verse notes parenthetically that these **days were the days of the first grapes, **which ripen in the late spring.
‎[21] **They ascended and scouted **all **the land, **traversing the entire territory of Canaan **from the wilderness of Tzin to Rehov, **a place located **at Levo Hamat **in northern Syria.
‎[22] **They ascended in the South, and he came until Hebron. **The second clause is stated in the singular despite the fact that the first clause is in the plural. It is possible that the scouts did not advance as a single unit for the entire trip, and therefore only one of them reached Hebron. According to the Sages, this was Caleb. 4 It is likely that the people had preserved the memory of Hebron as the city of the forefathers. **And Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, children of the giant, were there. **Parenthetically, the verse notes here that **Hebron was built seven years before Tzo'an, **a very important city **of Egypt. **Tzo'an was a well-known ancient city, and unlike other Egyptian cities, the time period of its establishment was also known. The verse therefore underscores the importance of the ancient city of Hebron by stating that it was founded even earlier than Tzo'an.
‎[23] Toward the end of their journey back,
5 **they came to the Eshkol Ravine, and cut from there a vine with one cluster **
‎[24] The verse notes:
**That place he, **or they, **called the Eshkol Ravine. **It can be assumed that this valley was close to the wilderness, and therefore the scouts did not have to carry the grapes throughout the entire length of Canaan. Some commentaries suggest that the Eshkol Ravine should be identified with one of the streambeds planted with many vineyards found to the north of Hebron. The valley became commonly known as the Eshkol Ravine **because of the cluster [ *eshkol *] **of grapes **that the children of Israel cut from there. **
‎[25] Since their mission was limited to gaining a general impression and their mandate did not include gathering detailed information,
**they returned from scouting the land at the conclusion of forty days. **
‎[26] **They went and came to **report back to **Moses, and to Aaron, and to the entire congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, **more specifically **to **the place known as **Kadesh. And **they **brought back word to them and to the entire congregation, **who gathered to hear their account. This phrase serves as an additional indication that the scouts viewed themselves not only as emissaries of the leadership, but as agents of the entire nation. **And **in addition to their verbal testimony, they also **showed them the fruit of the land. **
‎[27] Addressing Moses directly in the presence of the assembled crowd,
**they related **the details of their journey **to him, and **they **said: We came to the land to which you sent us, and indeed it is flowing with milk and honey. **It is a very fertile land, as God has told us, 6 **and this is **a sample of some of **its fruit. **
‎[28] **Only, **you must know that **the people that lives in the land is mighty. **Its inhabitants are not meek or complacent, and therefore it will be difficult for us to subjugate them quickly. **And **furthermore **the cities **in which they live **are fortified **and **very great; we also saw the children of the giant there. **
‎[29] **Amalek lives in the southern region, **along our route. According to the original plan for entering Canaan, the Israelites would have traveled north, through the Negev, and would have encountered opposition from the Amalekites. **And **in addition, **the Hitites, the Yevusites, and the Emorites live in the highland, and the Canaanites live along the sea and alongside the Jordan. **
‎[30] Although the scouts’ report was formally addressed to Moses, it was meant for the nation’s ears as well. Since the people trusted the scouts, they became fearful upon hearing their report, and they began to murmur among themselves and to voice their concerns. In response,
**Caleb silenced the people **and directed their attention **toward Moses. **As the leader of the nation and the recipient of the scouts’ report, the response to the report should have come from him rather than from the initial reaction of the masses. Furthermore, Caleb added encouraging words of his own, **and **he **said: **Do not fear or hesitate! **We shall **be able to **ascend and inherit it, **the land, **for we can prevail over it. **
‎[31] **But the **other **men who ascended **to the land along **with him **and with Joshua, representatives of the other tribes, contradicted him and **said: We will not be able to ascend **to the land, **against the people, for it is stronger than we are. **We do not have the military strength to fight those mighty armies. The Israelites, who until recently had been slaves in Egypt, were afraid to engage in open warfare.
‎[32] At first, the scouts provided a relatively objective account of what they had seen, answering the questions that were posed to them. But now
**they promulgated a slanderous report of the land that they scouted to the children of Israel. **Their portrayals may not have been entirely false, but they were slanted in a deliberate effort to create a negative impression, 7 **saying: The land, which we passed through to scout it, is a land that devours its inhabitants. **There are many diseases and untimely deaths there. **And **conversely, **all the people whom we saw in it were people of size, **large individuals. Although the mortality rate is high, large people with strong bodies are able to live there.
‎[33] **There we saw the Nefilim, sons of a giant, from **among **the Nefilim, ** an ancient race of giants. 8 **We were as grasshoppers in our eyes **when we stood opposite these enormous individuals, **and so we were in their eyes; **they also related to us as small, worthless creatures. The huge fruits the scouts brought back also served to vividly illustrate for their listeners the likely dimensions of the people who inhabited the land.
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
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License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center