Numbers 13 Bible Commentary

The Geneva Study Bible

(Read all of Numbers 13)
13:2 b Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

(b) After the people had required it of Moses, as it is in (Deuteronomy 1:22) then the Lord told Moses to do it.

13:16 These [are] the names of the c men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.

(c) Which in number were twelve according to the twelve tribes.

13:19 And what the land [is] that they dwell in, whether it [be] d good or bad; and what cities [they be] that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;

(d) Plentiful or barren.

13:21 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of e Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.

(e) Which was in the wilderness of Paran.

13:22 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of f Anak, [were]. (Now g Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

(f) Which were a type of giant.
(g) Declaring the antiquity of it: also Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob were buried there.

13:26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of h Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.

(h) Called also Kadesh-barnea.

13:27 And they told i him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this [is] the fruit of it.

(i) That is, Moses.

13:28 Nevertheless the people [be] strong that dwell in the land, and the cities [are] walled, [and] very great: and moreover we saw the k children of Anak there.

(k) Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, whom Caleb slew afterward, (Joshua 11:21,22).

13:32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, [is] a land that l eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it [are] men of a great stature.

(l) The giants were so cruel, that they spoiled and killed one another and those that came to them.