³ So Moses sent them from ^(A)the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.

²¹ So they went up and spied out the land ^(A)from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, ^(B)near Lebo-hamath. ²² They went up into ^(C)the Negeb and came to ^(D)Hebron. ^(E)Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the ^(F)descendants of Anak, were there. (^(G)Hebron was built seven years before ^(H)Zoan in Egypt.) ²³ And ^(I)they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ That place was called the Valley of Eshcol,^[a] because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.

Report of the Spies

²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. ²⁶ And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at ^(J)Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It ^(K)flows with milk and honey, ^(L)and this is its fruit. ^28 (M)However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. ^29 (N)The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. ^(O)And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

³⁰ But ^(P)Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” ^31 (Q)Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” ³² So ^(R)they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ^(S)all the people that we saw in it are of great height. ³³ And there we saw the ^(T)Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the ^(U)Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves ^(V)like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

²² Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ ²³ The thing seemed good to me, and ^(A)I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. ²⁴ And ^(B)they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵ And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

²⁶ “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷ And ^(C)you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord ^(D)hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, ^(E)to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where are we going up? ^(F)Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ^(G)“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen ^(H)the sons of the Anakim there.”’