CONTEXT:
PART
3: To Refusal & Judgment
The
third part finds Israel at the border of the Promised Land,
sending in spies, and then refusing to go in. Chapter 15
reiterates rules and looks to the future when they do go
in.
Ch.13:
[Action]
Exploring
the Land & Report of the Spies
-
sending spies in to assess the land
Ch.14:
[Action] Refusing Entry & Judgment
-
a negative report and a rebellious people
Ch.15:
[Law]
Offerings in the Land & [Action] a
Disobedience
-
nevertheless hope for the
future
|
FRAMEWORKS:
Numbers 13: Exploring the Land & Report
of the Spies
v.1-3
Exploring Canaan Instructed by the Lord
v.4-16
Exploring Canaan Instructed by the Lord
v.17-20
Moses Instructs them what to look for
v.21-25
They travel through the Land for Forty Days
v.26-29
The Negative Report on the Land
v.30-33
Caleb tries to be Positive but ten remain negative
v.1-3
Exploring Canaan Instructed by the Lord
v.1 The
Lord said to Moses,
v.2
“Send
some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the
Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”
v.3
So
at the Lord 's command Moses sent them out from the Desert of
Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.
[Notes:
The Lord instructs spies to be sent into the land from
their present location in the far south.]
v.4-16
Exploring Canaan Instructed by the Lord
4 These
are their names:
from
the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zakkur;
5 from
the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
6 from
the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
7 from
the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
8 from
the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
9 from
the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
10 from
the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
11 from
the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi
son of Susi;
12 from
the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
13 from
the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
14 from
the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
15 from
the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki.
v.16
These
are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses
gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)
[Notes:
The twelve spies identified.]
v.17-20
Moses Instructs them what to look for
v.17
When
Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the
Negev and on into the hill country.
v.18
See
what the land is like and whether the people who live there are
strong or weak, few or many.
v.19
What
kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of
towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified?
v.20
How
is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not?
Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It
was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
[Notes:
Moses tells the spies what to look out for in terms
of the people there and the nature of the land.]
v.21-25
They travel through the Land for Forty Days
v.21
So
they went up and explored the land from the Desert of
Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath.
v.22
They
went up through the Negev and came to Hebron ,
where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived.
(Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
v.23
When
they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing
a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between
them, along with some pomegranates and figs.
v.24
That
place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of
grapes the Israelites cut off there.
v.25
At
the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.
[Notes:
From the far south west they travel up into the land
to Hebron (halfway up the Dead Sea) and the valley of Eshkol where
they took samples of the fruit there, then carried on up to Rehob
in the north (in what later became Galilee) and then back down,
probably via Hebron again and down to Kadesh. The trip took forty
days.]
v.26-29
The Negative Report on the Land
v.26
They
came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community
at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them
and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
v.27
They
gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent
us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.
v.28
But
the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified
and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
v.29
The
Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites
live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea
and along the Jordan.”
[Notes:
Their report on the land itself is very positive, but
less so about the people living there.]
v.30-33
Caleb tries to be Positive but ten remain negative
v.30
Then
Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go
up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
v.31
But
the men who had gone up with him said, “We can't attack those
people; they are stronger than we are.”
v.32
And
they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they
had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living
in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.
v.33
We
saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the
Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we
looked the same to them.”
[Notes:
Caleb is much more positive but the majority override
he and Joshua and are fearful about their chances of defeating
the occupants the other ten saw there.]