@Nu 13:1-33. THE NAMES OF THE MEN WHO WERE SENT TO SEARCH THE LAND.
1, 2. The Lord spake unto Moses, Send thou men, that they may search the land, of Canaan--Compare @De 1:22, whence it appears, that while the proposal of delegating confidential men from each tribe to explore the land of Canaan emanated from the people who petitioned for it, the measure received the special sanction of God, who granted their request at once as a trial, and a punishment of their distrust.
3. those men were heads of the children of Israel--Not the princes who are named (@Nu 10:14-16,18-20,22-27), but chiefs, leading men though not of the first rank.
16. Oshea--that is, "a desire of salvation." Jehoshua, by prefixing the name of God, means "divinely appointed," "head of salvation," "Saviour," the same as Jesus [@Mt 1:21, Margin].
17. Get you up this way . . . , and go up into the mountain--Mount Seir (@De 1:2), which lay directly from Sinai across the wilderness of Paran, in a northeasterly direction into the southern parts of the promised land.
20. Now the time was the time of the first grapes--This was in August, when the first clusters are gathered. The second are gathered in September, and the third in October. The spies' absence for a period of forty days determines the grapes they brought from Eshcol to have been of the second period.
21-24. So they . . . searched the land--They advanced from south to
north, reconnoitering the whole land.
the wilderness of Zin--a long level plain, or deep valley of sand, the
monotony of which is relieved by a few tamarisk and rethem trees.
Under the names of El Ghor and El Araba, it forms the continuation of
the Jordan valley, extending from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba.
Rehob--or, Beth-rehob, was a city and district situated, according
to some, eastward of Sidon; and, according to others, it is the same as
El Hule, an extensive and fertile champaign country, at the foot of
Anti-libanus, a few leagues below Paneas.
as men come to Hamath--or, "the entering in of Hamath"
(@2Ki 14:25), now the valley of Balbeck, a mountain pass or opening
in the northern frontier, which formed the extreme limit in that
direction of the inheritance of Israel. From the mention of these
places, the route of the scouts appears to have been along the course
of the Jordan in their advance; and their return was by the western
border through the territories of the Sidonians and Philistines.
22. unto Hebron--situated in the heart of the mountains of Judah, in
the southern extremity of Palestine. The town or "cities of Hebron," as
it is expressed in the Hebrew, consists of a number of sheikdoms
distinct from each other, standing at the foot of one of those hills
that form a bowl round and enclose it. "The children of Anak" mentioned
in this verse seem to have been also chiefs of townships; and this
coincidence of polity, existing in ages so distant from each other, is
remarkable [VERE
MONRO].
Hebron (Kirjath Arba, @Ge 23:2) was one of
the oldest cities in the world.
Zoan--(the Tunis of the Greeks) was situated on one of the eastern
branches of the Nile, near the lake Menzala, and was the early royal
residence of the Pharaohs. It boasted a higher antiquity than any other
city in Egypt. Its name, which signifies flat and level, is
descriptive of its situation in the low grounds of the Delta.
23. they came unto the brook of Eshcol--that is, "the torrent of the
cluster." Its location was a little to the southwest of Hebron. The
valley and its sloping hills are still covered with vineyards, the
character of whose fruit corresponds to its ancient celebrity.
and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes--The
grapes reared in this locality are still as magnificent as formerly--they are said by one to be equal in size to prunes, and compared by
another to a man's thumb. One cluster sometimes weights ten or twelve
pounds. The mode of carrying the cluster cut down by the spies, though
not necessary from its weight, was evidently adopted to preserve it
entire as a specimen of the productions of the promised land; and the
impression made by the sight of it would be all the greater because the
Israelites were familiar only with the scanty vines and small grapes of
Egypt.
26. they came . . . to Kadesh--an important encampment of the Israelites. But its exact situation is not definitely known, nor is it determined whether it is the same or a different place from Kadesh-barnea. It is supposed to be identical with Ain-el-Weibeh, a famous spring on the eastern side of the desert [ROBINSON], or also with Petra [STANLEY].
27, 28. they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey--The report was given publicly in the audience of the people, and it was artfully arranged to begin their narrative with commendations of the natural fertility of the country in order that their subsequent slanders might the more readily receive credit.
29. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south--Their territory
lay between the Dead and the Red Seas, skirting the borders of Canaan.
Hittites . . . dwell in the mountains--Their settlements were in the
southern and mountainous part of Palestine (@Ge 23:7).
the Canaanites dwell by the sea--The remnant of the original
inhabitants, who had been dispossessed by the Philistines, were divided
into two nomadic hordes--one settled eastward near the Jordan; the
other westward, by the Mediterranean.
32. a land that eateth up the inhabitants--that is, an unhealthy
climate and country. Jewish writers say that in the course of their
travels they saw a great many funerals, vast numbers of the Canaanites
being cut off at that time, in the providence of God, by a plague or
the hornet (@Jos 24:12).
men of a great stature--This was evidently a false and exaggerated
report, representing, from timidity or malicious artifice, what was
true of a few as descriptive of the people generally.
33. there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak--The name is derived
from the son of Arba, a great man among the Arabians (@Jos 15:14),
who probably obtained his appellation from wearing a splendid collar or
chain round his neck, as the word imports. The epithet "giant"
evidently refers here to stature.
(See on Ge 6:4). And it is
probable the Anakims were a distinguished family, or perhaps a select
body of warriors, chosen for their extraordinary size.
we were in our own sight as grasshoppers--a strong Orientalism, by
which the treacherous spies gave an exaggerated report of the physical
strength of the people of Canaan.