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Numbers 13:21
Verse
Context
The Spies Explore Canaan
20Is the soil fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous, and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)21So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath.22They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
Summary
Commentary
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Matthew Henry
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
From the wilderness of Zin - The place called; צן Tsin, here, is different from that called סין Sin or Seen. Exo 16:1; the latter was nigh to Egypt, but the former was near Kadesh Barnea, not far from the borders of the promised land. "The spies having left Kadesh Barnea, which was in the desert of Paran, see Num 13:26, they proceeded to the desert of Tsin, all along the land of Canaan, nearly following the course of the river Jordan, till they came to Rehob, a city situated near Mount Libanus, at the northern extremity of the Holy Land, towards the road that leads to Hamath. Thence they returned through the midst of the same land by the borders of the Sidonians and Philistines, and passing by Mount Hebron, rendered famous by the residence of Abraham formerly, and by the gigantic descendants of Anak at that time, they passed through the valley of the brook of Eshcol, where they cut down the bunch of grapes mentioned Num 13:23, and returned to the Israelitish camp after an absence of forty days," Num 13:25. See Calmet on this place.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
Journey of the Spies; Their Return, and Report. - Num 13:21. In accordance with the instructions they had received, the men who had been sent out passed through the land, from the desert of Zin to Rehob, in the neighbourhood of Hamath, i.e., in its entire extent from south to north. The "Desert of Zin" (which occurs not only here, but in Num 20:1; Num 27:14; Num 33:36; Num 34:3-4; Deu 32:51, and Jos 15:1, Jos 15:3) was the name given to the northern edge of the great desert of Paran, viz., the broad ravine of Wady Murreh, which separates the lofty and precipitous northern border of the table-land of the Azazimeh from the southern border of the Rakhma plateau, i.e., of the southernmost plateau of the mountains of the Amorites (or the mountains of Judah), and runs from Jebel Madarah (Moddera) on the east, to the plain of Kadesh, which forms part of the desert of Zin (cf. Num 27:14; Num 33:36; Deu 32:51), on the west. The south frontier of Canaan passed through this from the southern end of the Dead Sea, along the Wady el Murreh to the Wady el Arish (Num 34:3). - "Rehob, to come (coming) to Hamath," i.e., where you enter the province of Hamath, on the northern boundary of Canaan, is hardly one of the two Rehobs in the tribe of Asher (Jos 19:28 and Jos 19:30), but most likely Beth-rehob in the tribe of Naphtali, which was in the neighbourhood of Dan Lais, the modern Tell el Kadhy (Jdg 18:28), and which Robinson imagined that he had identified in the ruins of the castle of Hunin or Honin, in the village of the same name, to the south-west of Tell el Kadhy, on the range of mountains which bound the plain towards the west above Lake Huleh (Bibl. Researches, p. 371). In support of this conjecture, he laid the principal stress upon the fact that the direct road to Hamath through the Wady et Teim and the Bekaa commences here. The only circumstance which it is hard to reconcile with this conjecture is, that Beth-rehob is never mentioned in the Old Testament, with the exception of Jdg 18:28, either among the fortified towns of the Canaanites or in the wars of the Israelites with the Syrians and Assyrians, and therefore does not appear to have been a place of such importance as we should naturally be led to suppose from the character of this castle, the very situation of which points to a bold, commanding fortress (see Lynch's Expedition), and where there are still remains of its original foundations built of large square stones, hewn and grooved, and reminding one of the antique and ornamental edifices of Solomon's times (cf. Ritter, Erdkunde, xv. pp. 242ff.). - Hamath is Epiphania on the Orontes, now Hamah (see at Gen 10:18). After the general statement, that the spies went through the whole land from the southern to the northern frontier, two facts are mentioned in Num 13:22-24, which occurred in connection with their mission, and were of great importance to the whole congregation. These single incidents are linked on, however, in a truly Hebrew style, to what precedes, viz., by an imperfect with Vav consec., just in the same manner in which, in Kg1 6:9, Kg1 6:15, the detailed account of the building of the temple is linked on to the previous statement, that Solomon built the temple and finished it; (Note: A comparison of 1 Kings 6, where we cannot possibly suppose that two accounts have been linked together or interwoven, is specially adapted to give us a clear view of the peculiar custom adopted by the Hebrew historians, of placing the end and ultimate result of the events they narrate as much as possible at the head of their narrative, and then proceeding with a minute account of the more important of the attendant circumstances, without paying any regard to the chronological order of the different incidents, or being at all afraid of repetitions, and so to prove how unwarrantable and false are the conclusions of those critics who press such passages into the support of their hypotheses. We have a similar passage in Jos 4:11., where, after relating that when all the people had gone through the Jordan the priests also passed through with the ark of the covenant (Jos 4:11), the historian proceeds in Jos 4:12, Jos 4:13, to describe the crossing of the two tribes and a half; and another in Judg 20, where, at the very commencement (Jdg 20:35), the issue of the whole is related, viz., the defeat of the Benjamites; and then after that there is a minute description in Jdg 20:36-46 of the manner in which it was effected. This style of narrative is also common in the historical works of the Arabs.) so that the true rendering would be, "now they ascended in the south country and came to Hebron (ויּבא is apparently an error in writing for ויּבאוּ), and there were הענק ולידי, the children of Anak," three of whom are mentioned by name. These three, who were afterwards expelled by Caleb, when the land was divided and the city of Hebron was given to him for an inheritance (Jos 15:14; Jdg 1:20), were descendants of Arbah, the lord of Hebron, from whom the city received its name of Kirjath-Arbah, or city of Arbah, and who is described in Jos 14:15 as "the great (i.e., the greatest) man among the Anakim," and in Jos 15:13 as the "father of Anak," i.e., the founder of the Anakite family there. For it is evident enough that הענק (Anak) is not the proper name of a man in these passages, but the name of a family or tribe, from the fact that in Num 13:33, where Anak's sons are spoken of in a general and indefinite manner, ענק בּני has not the article; also from the fact that the three Anakites who lived in Hebron are almost always called הענק ולידי, Anak's born (Num 13:22, Num 13:28), and that הענק בּני (sons of Anak), in Jos 15:14, is still further defined by the phrase הענק ולידי (children of Anak); and lastly, from the fact that in the place of "sons of Anak," we find "sons of the Anakim" in Deu 1:28 and Deu 9:2, and the "Anakim" in Deu 2:10; Deu 11:21; Jos 14:12, etc. Anak is supposed to signify long-necked; but this does not preclude the possibility of the founder of the tribe having borne this name. The origin of the Anakites is involved in obscurity. In Deu 2:10-11, they are classed with the Emim and Rephaim on account of their gigantic stature, and probably reckoned as belonging to the pre-Canaanitish inhabitants of the land, of whom it is impossible to decide whether they were of Semitic origin or descendants of Ham. It is also doubtful, whether the names found here in Num 13:21, Num 13:28, and in Jos 15:14, are the names of individuals, i.e., of chiefs of the Anakites, or the names of Anakite tribes. The latter supposition is favoured by the circumstance, that the same names occur even after the capture of Hebron by Caleb, or at least fifty years after the event referred to here. With regard to Hebron, it is still further observed in Num 13:22, that it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. Zoan - the Tanis of the Greeks and Romans, the San of the Arabs, which is called Jani, Jane in Coptic writings - was situated upon the eastern side of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, not far from its mouth (see Ges. Thes. p. 1177), and was the residence of Pharaoh in the time of Moses. The date of its erection is unknown; but Hebron was in existence as early as Abraham's time (Gen 13:18; Gen 23:2.).
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
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" (Kg2 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.
John Gill Bible Commentary
And they told him,.... Moses, who was the chief ruler whom they addressed, and to whom they directed their speech: and said, we came unto the land whither thou sentest us; the land of Canaan, which they were sent by Moses to spy; this was said by ten of them or by one of them as their mouth; for Caleb and Joshua did not join with them in the following account, as appears from Num 13:30, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; they own that the land answered to the description which the Lord had given of it when it was promised them by him, Exo 3:8, and this is the fruit of it; pointing to the bunch of grapes, the pomegranates and figs; not that these were a proof of its flowing with milk and honey, at least in a literal sense, but of the goodness and fruitfulness of the land: though the luxury of Bacchus, the god of wine, is by the poet (m) described, not only by a fountain of wine, but by rivers of milk and flows of honey. (m) "Vinique fontem", &c. Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 19.
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary
We have here a short account of the survey which the spies made of the promised land. 1. They went quite through it, from Zin in the south, to Rehob, near Hamath, in the north, Num 13:21. See Num 34:3, Num 34:8. It is probable that they did not go altogether in a body, lest they should be suspected and taken up, which there would be the more danger of if the Canaanites knew (and one would think they could not but know) how near the Israelites were to them; but they divided themselves into several companies, and so passed unsuspected, as way-faring men. 2. They took particular notice of Hebron (Num 13:22), probably because near there was the field of Machpelah, where the patriarchs were buried (Gen 23:2), whose dead bodies did, as it were, keep possession of that land for their posterity. To this sepulchre they made a particular visit, and found the adjoining city in the possession of the sons of Anak, who are here named. In that place where they expected the greatest encouragements they met with the greatest discouragements. Where the bodies of their ancestors kept possession for them the giants kept possession against them. They ascended by the south, and came to Hebron, that is, "Caleb," say the Jews, "in particular," for to his being there we find express reference, Jos 14:9, Jos 14:12, Jos 14:13. But that others of the spies were there too appears by their description of the Anakim, v. 33. 3. They brought a bunch of grapes with them, and some other of the fruits of the land, as a proof of the extraordinary goodness of the country. Probably they furnished themselves with these fruits when they were leaving the country and returning. The cluster of grapes was so large and so heavy that they hung it upon a bar, and carried it between two of them, Num 13:23, Num 13:24. The place whence they took it was, from this circumstance, called the valley of the cluster, that famous cluster which was to Israel both the earnest and the specimen of all the fruits of Canaan. Such are the present comforts which we have in communion with God, foretastes of the fulness of joy we expect in the heavenly Canaan. We may see by them what heaven is.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
13:21-24 The spies explored the land, which was unusually fertile in contrast with the Sinai wilderness. 13:21 It was about 275 miles from the wilderness of Zin, located roughly between the wilderness of Paran and the southern frontier of Canaan (see 34:3-5; Josh 15:1-4), to Lebo-hamath (“entrance of Hamath,” either a notable mountain pass or another city near Hamath) in Syria. • The exact location of Rehob is uncertain, but it was probably the same as Old Testament Beth-rehob, situated near a major route to Hamath. The text thus already identifies the approximate borders of the Promised Land (see 1 Kgs 8:65). The phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” (Judg 20:1; 2 Sam 3:10), frequently used to demarcate Israel’s traditional boundaries, referred to a considerably smaller area than the territory visited by Israel’s spies.
Numbers 13:21
The Spies Explore Canaan
20Is the soil fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous, and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)21So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath.22They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
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- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Matthew Henry
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
From the wilderness of Zin - The place called; צן Tsin, here, is different from that called סין Sin or Seen. Exo 16:1; the latter was nigh to Egypt, but the former was near Kadesh Barnea, not far from the borders of the promised land. "The spies having left Kadesh Barnea, which was in the desert of Paran, see Num 13:26, they proceeded to the desert of Tsin, all along the land of Canaan, nearly following the course of the river Jordan, till they came to Rehob, a city situated near Mount Libanus, at the northern extremity of the Holy Land, towards the road that leads to Hamath. Thence they returned through the midst of the same land by the borders of the Sidonians and Philistines, and passing by Mount Hebron, rendered famous by the residence of Abraham formerly, and by the gigantic descendants of Anak at that time, they passed through the valley of the brook of Eshcol, where they cut down the bunch of grapes mentioned Num 13:23, and returned to the Israelitish camp after an absence of forty days," Num 13:25. See Calmet on this place.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
Journey of the Spies; Their Return, and Report. - Num 13:21. In accordance with the instructions they had received, the men who had been sent out passed through the land, from the desert of Zin to Rehob, in the neighbourhood of Hamath, i.e., in its entire extent from south to north. The "Desert of Zin" (which occurs not only here, but in Num 20:1; Num 27:14; Num 33:36; Num 34:3-4; Deu 32:51, and Jos 15:1, Jos 15:3) was the name given to the northern edge of the great desert of Paran, viz., the broad ravine of Wady Murreh, which separates the lofty and precipitous northern border of the table-land of the Azazimeh from the southern border of the Rakhma plateau, i.e., of the southernmost plateau of the mountains of the Amorites (or the mountains of Judah), and runs from Jebel Madarah (Moddera) on the east, to the plain of Kadesh, which forms part of the desert of Zin (cf. Num 27:14; Num 33:36; Deu 32:51), on the west. The south frontier of Canaan passed through this from the southern end of the Dead Sea, along the Wady el Murreh to the Wady el Arish (Num 34:3). - "Rehob, to come (coming) to Hamath," i.e., where you enter the province of Hamath, on the northern boundary of Canaan, is hardly one of the two Rehobs in the tribe of Asher (Jos 19:28 and Jos 19:30), but most likely Beth-rehob in the tribe of Naphtali, which was in the neighbourhood of Dan Lais, the modern Tell el Kadhy (Jdg 18:28), and which Robinson imagined that he had identified in the ruins of the castle of Hunin or Honin, in the village of the same name, to the south-west of Tell el Kadhy, on the range of mountains which bound the plain towards the west above Lake Huleh (Bibl. Researches, p. 371). In support of this conjecture, he laid the principal stress upon the fact that the direct road to Hamath through the Wady et Teim and the Bekaa commences here. The only circumstance which it is hard to reconcile with this conjecture is, that Beth-rehob is never mentioned in the Old Testament, with the exception of Jdg 18:28, either among the fortified towns of the Canaanites or in the wars of the Israelites with the Syrians and Assyrians, and therefore does not appear to have been a place of such importance as we should naturally be led to suppose from the character of this castle, the very situation of which points to a bold, commanding fortress (see Lynch's Expedition), and where there are still remains of its original foundations built of large square stones, hewn and grooved, and reminding one of the antique and ornamental edifices of Solomon's times (cf. Ritter, Erdkunde, xv. pp. 242ff.). - Hamath is Epiphania on the Orontes, now Hamah (see at Gen 10:18). After the general statement, that the spies went through the whole land from the southern to the northern frontier, two facts are mentioned in Num 13:22-24, which occurred in connection with their mission, and were of great importance to the whole congregation. These single incidents are linked on, however, in a truly Hebrew style, to what precedes, viz., by an imperfect with Vav consec., just in the same manner in which, in Kg1 6:9, Kg1 6:15, the detailed account of the building of the temple is linked on to the previous statement, that Solomon built the temple and finished it; (Note: A comparison of 1 Kings 6, where we cannot possibly suppose that two accounts have been linked together or interwoven, is specially adapted to give us a clear view of the peculiar custom adopted by the Hebrew historians, of placing the end and ultimate result of the events they narrate as much as possible at the head of their narrative, and then proceeding with a minute account of the more important of the attendant circumstances, without paying any regard to the chronological order of the different incidents, or being at all afraid of repetitions, and so to prove how unwarrantable and false are the conclusions of those critics who press such passages into the support of their hypotheses. We have a similar passage in Jos 4:11., where, after relating that when all the people had gone through the Jordan the priests also passed through with the ark of the covenant (Jos 4:11), the historian proceeds in Jos 4:12, Jos 4:13, to describe the crossing of the two tribes and a half; and another in Judg 20, where, at the very commencement (Jdg 20:35), the issue of the whole is related, viz., the defeat of the Benjamites; and then after that there is a minute description in Jdg 20:36-46 of the manner in which it was effected. This style of narrative is also common in the historical works of the Arabs.) so that the true rendering would be, "now they ascended in the south country and came to Hebron (ויּבא is apparently an error in writing for ויּבאוּ), and there were הענק ולידי, the children of Anak," three of whom are mentioned by name. These three, who were afterwards expelled by Caleb, when the land was divided and the city of Hebron was given to him for an inheritance (Jos 15:14; Jdg 1:20), were descendants of Arbah, the lord of Hebron, from whom the city received its name of Kirjath-Arbah, or city of Arbah, and who is described in Jos 14:15 as "the great (i.e., the greatest) man among the Anakim," and in Jos 15:13 as the "father of Anak," i.e., the founder of the Anakite family there. For it is evident enough that הענק (Anak) is not the proper name of a man in these passages, but the name of a family or tribe, from the fact that in Num 13:33, where Anak's sons are spoken of in a general and indefinite manner, ענק בּני has not the article; also from the fact that the three Anakites who lived in Hebron are almost always called הענק ולידי, Anak's born (Num 13:22, Num 13:28), and that הענק בּני (sons of Anak), in Jos 15:14, is still further defined by the phrase הענק ולידי (children of Anak); and lastly, from the fact that in the place of "sons of Anak," we find "sons of the Anakim" in Deu 1:28 and Deu 9:2, and the "Anakim" in Deu 2:10; Deu 11:21; Jos 14:12, etc. Anak is supposed to signify long-necked; but this does not preclude the possibility of the founder of the tribe having borne this name. The origin of the Anakites is involved in obscurity. In Deu 2:10-11, they are classed with the Emim and Rephaim on account of their gigantic stature, and probably reckoned as belonging to the pre-Canaanitish inhabitants of the land, of whom it is impossible to decide whether they were of Semitic origin or descendants of Ham. It is also doubtful, whether the names found here in Num 13:21, Num 13:28, and in Jos 15:14, are the names of individuals, i.e., of chiefs of the Anakites, or the names of Anakite tribes. The latter supposition is favoured by the circumstance, that the same names occur even after the capture of Hebron by Caleb, or at least fifty years after the event referred to here. With regard to Hebron, it is still further observed in Num 13:22, that it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. Zoan - the Tanis of the Greeks and Romans, the San of the Arabs, which is called Jani, Jane in Coptic writings - was situated upon the eastern side of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, not far from its mouth (see Ges. Thes. p. 1177), and was the residence of Pharaoh in the time of Moses. The date of its erection is unknown; but Hebron was in existence as early as Abraham's time (Gen 13:18; Gen 23:2.).
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
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" (Kg2 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.
John Gill Bible Commentary
And they told him,.... Moses, who was the chief ruler whom they addressed, and to whom they directed their speech: and said, we came unto the land whither thou sentest us; the land of Canaan, which they were sent by Moses to spy; this was said by ten of them or by one of them as their mouth; for Caleb and Joshua did not join with them in the following account, as appears from Num 13:30, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; they own that the land answered to the description which the Lord had given of it when it was promised them by him, Exo 3:8, and this is the fruit of it; pointing to the bunch of grapes, the pomegranates and figs; not that these were a proof of its flowing with milk and honey, at least in a literal sense, but of the goodness and fruitfulness of the land: though the luxury of Bacchus, the god of wine, is by the poet (m) described, not only by a fountain of wine, but by rivers of milk and flows of honey. (m) "Vinique fontem", &c. Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 19.
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary
We have here a short account of the survey which the spies made of the promised land. 1. They went quite through it, from Zin in the south, to Rehob, near Hamath, in the north, Num 13:21. See Num 34:3, Num 34:8. It is probable that they did not go altogether in a body, lest they should be suspected and taken up, which there would be the more danger of if the Canaanites knew (and one would think they could not but know) how near the Israelites were to them; but they divided themselves into several companies, and so passed unsuspected, as way-faring men. 2. They took particular notice of Hebron (Num 13:22), probably because near there was the field of Machpelah, where the patriarchs were buried (Gen 23:2), whose dead bodies did, as it were, keep possession of that land for their posterity. To this sepulchre they made a particular visit, and found the adjoining city in the possession of the sons of Anak, who are here named. In that place where they expected the greatest encouragements they met with the greatest discouragements. Where the bodies of their ancestors kept possession for them the giants kept possession against them. They ascended by the south, and came to Hebron, that is, "Caleb," say the Jews, "in particular," for to his being there we find express reference, Jos 14:9, Jos 14:12, Jos 14:13. But that others of the spies were there too appears by their description of the Anakim, v. 33. 3. They brought a bunch of grapes with them, and some other of the fruits of the land, as a proof of the extraordinary goodness of the country. Probably they furnished themselves with these fruits when they were leaving the country and returning. The cluster of grapes was so large and so heavy that they hung it upon a bar, and carried it between two of them, Num 13:23, Num 13:24. The place whence they took it was, from this circumstance, called the valley of the cluster, that famous cluster which was to Israel both the earnest and the specimen of all the fruits of Canaan. Such are the present comforts which we have in communion with God, foretastes of the fulness of joy we expect in the heavenly Canaan. We may see by them what heaven is.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
13:21-24 The spies explored the land, which was unusually fertile in contrast with the Sinai wilderness. 13:21 It was about 275 miles from the wilderness of Zin, located roughly between the wilderness of Paran and the southern frontier of Canaan (see 34:3-5; Josh 15:1-4), to Lebo-hamath (“entrance of Hamath,” either a notable mountain pass or another city near Hamath) in Syria. • The exact location of Rehob is uncertain, but it was probably the same as Old Testament Beth-rehob, situated near a major route to Hamath. The text thus already identifies the approximate borders of the Promised Land (see 1 Kgs 8:65). The phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” (Judg 20:1; 2 Sam 3:10), frequently used to demarcate Israel’s traditional boundaries, referred to a considerably smaller area than the territory visited by Israel’s spies.