Numbers, Chapter 13

This chapter is about exploring Canaan & the report about the exploration. This chapter also talks of the Nephilim. And a mysterious person named Anak. Just bear in mind that the “bible” just doesn’t throw random names out there for no reason. Enjoy the read!

God told Moses to send some guys to explore Canaan. The guys were the 12 leaders of the Israelites. God let Moses know that this was the land that He was giving the Israelites.

So at God’s command, Moses sent the 12 leaders out from the Desert of Paran. Here’s the 12 leaders names: Shammua (Reuben), Shaphat (Simeon), Caleb (Judah) (we’ll be talking about him later.), Igal (Issachar), Hoshea (Ephraim) (we’ve already mentioned this young man. Moses renamed him Joshua. We’ll be talking more about him later also.), Palti (Benjamin), Gaddiel (Zebulun), Gaddi (Manasseh), Ammiel (Dan), Arthur (Asher), Nahbi (Naphtali), Gruel (Gad).

Moses have them instructions on where to go. They had to go through the Negev & into the hill country. Moses wanted the deets of what the land looked like, to see if the people there were strong & how many lived there, if the land was fertile or not, what kind of towns were there, were the towns fortified, if there were trees there. Moses also wanted, if they could, to bring back some fruit from the land. (The text mentions here that it was the season for the 1st ripe grapes.)

So the 12 men went up & explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. They went up through the Negev & came to Hebron. Hebron is where Ahiman, Sheshai, & Talmai (who were the descendants of Anak) lived. Hebron had been built 7 years before Zoan in Egypt.

When they reached the Valley of Eshcol (Eshcol means cluster), they cut off a branch with a single cluster of grapes. 2 of them carried it on a pole between them, plus some figs & pomegranates. At the end of 40 days, they returned to the camp at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. They showed everyone the fruit of the land.

They reported back to Moses what they saw: “When we went into the land, it flows with milk & honey! (This is where the term ‘land of milk & honey’ comes from.) There’s the fruit. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites, & Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live near the sea & along the Jordan [River].”

Caleb said to Moses, in front of the entire Israelite community, that they can TOTALLY kick butt, that they could take the land.

But 10 of the other men, pretty much everyone else besides Joshua & Caleb, want with that plan AT ALL! Then these 10 started telling everyone that Canaan wasn’t where they wanted to go. Saying, “The land devours those living in it. (Pay careful attention to this next part!) All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there. (The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim.) “