The Reports of the Spies

The spies return after forty days and report before the whole congregation. They show the fruit and affirm the land's abundance, yet their account quickly shifts to the strength and spread of its inhabitants.

A²⁵fter forty days the men returned from spying out the land, ²⁶and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit! ²⁸Nevertheless, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”

Caleb urges Israel to go up and take the land, but the others answer with refusal and exaggeration. Their words turn the land into a place of threat and leave Israel feeling small before it.

³⁰Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!” ³¹But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!” ³²So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature. ³³We even saw the Nephilim there— the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”