Numbers 13 · Parashat Shelach

And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying,

Send thou men, that they may spy out the land of Kena῾an, which I give to the children of Yisra᾽el: of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a ruler among them.

And Moshe by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Yisra᾽el.

And these were their names: of the tribe of Re᾽uven, Shammua son of Zakkur.

Of the tribe of Shim῾on, Shafat son of Ḥori.

Of the tribe of Yehuda, Kalev, son of Yefunne.

Of the tribe of Yissakhar, Yig᾽al son of Yosef.

Of the tribe of Efrayim, Hoshea son of Nun.

Of the tribe of Binyamin, Palti, son of Rafu.

Of the tribe of Zevulun, Gaddi᾽el son of Sodi.

Of the tribe of Yosef, that is of the tribe of Menashshe, Gaddi son of Susi.

Of the tribe of Dan, ῾Ammi᾽el son of Gemalli.

Of the tribe of Asher, Setur son of Mikha᾽el.

Of the tribe of Naftali, Naĥbi, son of Vofsi.

Of the tribe of Gad, Ge᾽u᾽el son of Makhi.

These are the names of the men whom Moshe sent to spy out the land. And Moshe called Hoshea son of Nun, Yehoshua.

And Moshe sent them to spy out the land of Kena῾an, and he said to them, Go up this way by the south, and go up into the high land:

and see the country, what it is; and the people who dwell in it, whether they are strong or weak, few or many;

and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strongholds;

and what the land is, whether fat or lean, whether there are trees in it, or not. And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.

So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Żin to Reĥov, on the way to Ḥamat.

And they ascended into the Negev, and came to Ḥevron, where Aĥiman, Sheshay, and Talmay, the children of ῾Anaq, were. (Now Ḥevron was built seven years before Żo῾an in Miżrayim.)

And they came to the wadi of Eshkol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it between two on a pole; and they brought of the pomegranates, and the figs.

The place was called the wadi of Eshkol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Yisra᾽el cut down from there.

And they returned from searching the land after forty days.

And they went and came to Moshe and to Aharon, and to all the congregation of the children of Yisra᾽el, to the wilderness of Paran, to Qadesh; and brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

And they told him, and said, We came to the land where thou didst send us, and indeed it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

But the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are fortified, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of ῾Anaq there.

῾Amaleq dwells in the land of the Negev: and the Ḥitti, and the Yevusi, and the Emori dwell in the mountain: and the Kena῾ani dwell by the sea and by the side of the Yarden.

And Kalev stilled the people before Moshe, 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.

And they spread an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Yisra᾽el, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

And there we saw the Nefilim, the sons of ῾Anaq who come of the Nefilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.