17 When Moses sent them to explore the land, he said to them, ‘Go north from here, through the Negev Desert. Then continue to go north, into the place where there are hills. 18 Look at the land to see what it is like. See whether the people who live there are strong or weak. See whether few people or many people live there. 19 See whether their land is good or bad. Look at the towns where the people live. See if they have strong walls or if they are in the open. 20 See whether the land is able to make good food grow there, or not. See whether there are forests that grow there. Then try to get some fruit from the land and bring it back here.’ (It was the time of year that the first grapes become ready to eat.)
21 So the men went and they explored the land of Canaan. They started in the Zin Desert, and they continued to Rehob, near Lebo-Hamath. 22 When they had gone through the Negev Desert in the south of the land, they arrived at Hebron. That was where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were living. They had built Hebron seven years before the Egyptians built Zoan.
23 Then the men came to the valley called Eshcol. They cut a branch which had one group of grapes on it. It was so large that two men carried it between them on a pole. They also brought some other fruits called pomegranates and figs. 24 People called that valley ‘Eshcol’ because of the large group of grapes that the Israelites cut down there.
25 The men returned after they had explored the land for 40 days.
The men bring news to Moses
26 The men returned to Kadesh in the Paran Desert. They brought their message to Moses and Aaron and to all the Israelites there. They told them all about the land of Canaan and they showed its fruit to them. 27 They said to Moses, ‘We went to look at the land where you sent us. It is certainly a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. This is some of its fruit. 28 But the people who live in the land are strong. Their towns are very big, and strong walls keep them safe. We also saw some descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites are living in the Negev, the land in the south of the country. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live by the sea and beside the edge of the Jordan River.’
13:29The Jordan River went from Galilee in the north of Israel to the Salt Sea (Dead Sea) in the south.
30 As the people stood in front of Moses, Caleb told them to be quiet. He said, ‘We should go into the land and take it for ourselves. We will certainly be able to do it!’
31 But the men who had gone into Canaan with Caleb said, ‘These people are stronger than we are. So we cannot go and fight against them.’
32 Those men gave a bad report to the Israelites about the land that they had explored. They said, ‘We went through the whole land and we explored it. The land seems to eat the people who live there! All the people that we saw there were very big and strong. 33 We also saw descendants of the Nephilites there. And we felt like very small insects when we looked at them. And we seemed like very small insects to them too.’ (The descendants of Anak are also descendants of the Nephilites.)
