Spies Sent into Canaan

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 ^g“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.”

17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into ^lthe Negeb and go up into ^mthe hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is ⁿrich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. ^oBe of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

21 So they went up and spied out the land ^pfrom the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, ^qnear Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into ^mthe Negeb and came to ^rHebron. ^sAhiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the ^tdescendants of Anak, were there. (^uHebron was built seven years before ^uZoan in Egypt.) 23 And ^vthey 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.

27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It ^xflows with milk and honey, ^yand this is its fruit.