“Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan that I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers you will send a man, every one a ruler among them.”
Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Yahweh, all of the men who were heads of the children of Israel.
These were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;
of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hor;
of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh;
of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph;
of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun;
of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu;
of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi;
of the tribe of Joseph, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi;
of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli;
of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael;
of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;
of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, “Joshua.”
Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up there into the Negev, and then go up into the hill country
and see the land, what it is, and the people who live in it, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
and what the land is that they live in, whether it is good or bad, and what cities are there that they live in, whether they live in camps or in strongholds;
and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there are trees in it or not. Be courageous, and bring of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.
So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.
They went up by the Negev and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the sons of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
They came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff between two. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.
That place was called the valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes that the children of Israel cut down from there.
Report of the Spies
And at the end of 40 days they returned from spying out the land.
They went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, and brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
They told him, and said, “We came to the land where you sent us and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit from it.
However the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.
Amalek dwells in the land of the Negev, and the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan.”
Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”
But the men who went up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”
They brought up an evil report of the land that they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that eats up its inhabitants, and all the people who we saw in it are men of great size.
And we saw the Nephilim there (the sons of Anak come from the Nephilim), and in our own sight we seemed like grasshoppers, and we seemed that way in their sight.”