042. XXVIII. The Attempt To Enter Canaan From The South
§ XXVIII. THE ATTEMPT TO ENTER CANAAN FROM THE SOUTH Numbers 13, 14, Deuteronomy 1:32, Numbers 14:11-33, Numbers 16
1. Thesending forth of the spies. Then Moses sent certain men to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up now into the South Country and on up into the hill-country, and see what the land is and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether few or many, and what the land is in which they dwell, whether it is good or bad; and what the cities are in which they dwell, whether in camps or in strongholds; and see what the land is, whether it is fertile or barren, whether there is wood in it or not. Be brave and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now it was the time of the first ripe grapes.
2.Their journey. So they went up by the South Country, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) And when they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and carried it upon a staff between two men, and also some of the pomegranates, and some of the figs. That place was called the valley of Eshcol [Grape- cluster], because of the cluster which the Israelites cut down from there.
3.Their report. And they returned to Kadesh, and brought back a report to them, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told Moses, saying, We came to the land to which you sent us; and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. But the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified, and very large; and, moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.
(The Amalekites were dwelling in the land of the south; and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites in the hill-country; and the Canaanites were dwelling by the sea, and beside the Jordan.)
Then Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, We surely ought to go up and take possession of 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 there we saw Nephilim [giants]; we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight.
4.The murmuring of the people. Then the people wept that night, saying, Why did Jehovah bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey! Were it not better for us to return to Egypt ? And they said to one another, Let us make a captain and return to Egypt.
5.Moses’s counsel. But Moses said to them, If Jehovah delighteth in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey. Fear not the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their defence is removed from over them, for Jehovah is with us; fear them not. But the people would not trust Jehovah.
6.Jehovah’s condemnation of the Israelites. Therefore Jehovah said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they refuse to trust me, in spite of all the signs which I have worked among them? I will smite them with a pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make thee a nation greater and mightier than they.
7.Moses’s intercession for the people. But Moses said to Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it (for thou broughtest this people in thy might from among them), and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people; for thou, Jehovah, art seen eye to eye, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will say, ‘ Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he promised to them with an oath, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.’ But now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, ‘Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; although he does not leave it unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children upon the third and fourth generation.’ Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people, according to thy great mercy, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
8. The judgment upon the people. Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word; but as surely as I live, and as surely as the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah, of all the men who have seen my glory and my signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, not one shall see the land which I promised to their fathers with an oath, neither shall any of those who despised me see it; but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit in him, and hath followed me unreservedly, him will I bring into the land to which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years.
9. Defeat of the Israelites. Now when the Canaanite king of Arad, who dwelt in the South Country, heard that Israel had come by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.
10. Mutiny of Dathan and Abiram. Then Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab the son of Pallu, son of Reuben, took men, and rose up before Moses. And Moses sent to summon Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab; but they said, We will not come up; is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, but you must even make yourself a prince over us? Moreover you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey; will you throw dust in our eyes? we will not come up.
11.Moses’s protest and warning. Then Moses was very angry and said to Jehovah, Do not respect their offering; I have not taken a single ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them. And Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. And he said to them, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away in all their sins. And Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood at the door of their tents, with their wives and sons and little ones.
12. His appeal to Jehovah for a divine decision. Then Moses said, By this you shall know that Jehovah hath sent me to do all these works; that it was not of mine own choice. If these men die the common death of men, or if they share the usual fate of men, then Jehovah hath not sent me. But if Jehovah does something unprecedented, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive to Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised Jehovah.
13. Fate of the rebels. And it came to pass as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground which was under them was cleft. So they and all that belonged to them, went down alive into Sheol.
I.The Natural Approach to Canaan. As has already been noted, two ways opened before the Hebrews as they departed from Egypt. They chose the southern, the Way of the Red Sea, because it led to freedom and association with their kinsmen. They avoided the northern route, the Way of the Philistines, which was the more direct road to Canaan, because it was guarded by Egyptian garrisons and by strongly intrenched agricultural peoples, whom the nomad Hebrew clans could not hope to conquer. From the first, Canaan, with its springs and fertile fields, was the loadstone which attracted the Hebrews. With Kadesh as a centre, they found their temporary home on the southern borders of this land of their hopes. The most natural and direct line of approach from Kadesh was directly northward. A journey of seventy-five or one hundred miles would bring them into the heart of southern Canaan. No strong, natural barriers barred their progress. Instead, the rolling, rocky South Country gradually merges into the rounded limestone hills of Judah.
II.The Report of the Spies. The story of the spies is the traditional record of the attempt of the Hebrews to enter Canaan from the south. Three distinct and variant versions of the tradition are found in Numbers, but they all agree regarding the essential facts. From Kadesh, Moses sent out certain men with Caleb at their head, to investigate conditions in the South Country and Canaan. Hebron they found in the possession of certain powerful clans. From the valleys of Judah they brought back convincing evidence of the vine culture which flourished there. In contrast to the barren life of the wilderness, even rocky Judah was a veritable paradise; but the cities were strong and fortified, and to the majority of the spies the conquest of Canaan seemed an impossibility. Caleb advocated an immediate advance; but the people were daunted by the report of the majority, and abandoned the hope of immediate conquest. A later prophetic editor, standing in the full light of later events, and inspired by a nobler faith, has introduced (6-8) a powerful arraignment of the people because of their cowardice and lack of faith at this critical moment in their history. The courage of Caleb was rewarded by the promise that his descendants should be established in southern Judah.
III.Reasons for the Failure. Egyptian inscriptions supplement the testimony of the oldest biblical records by revealing the real reasons why the Hebrews did not go up at once from the south to the conquest of Canaan. Chief among these was the fact that Egypt still maintained its rule in southern Palestine and thus bound together the different local clans and enabled them to offer a successful resistance to invasion from the desert. On the other hand, the Hebrews were not prepared to conquer the highly civilized peoples of Canaan. Excavation has revealed the strength and height of many of the walls which encircled their towns. Desert tribes have no means of attacking and capturing walled villages. The needs of their flocks and herds and the lack of military training make it impossible for them to maintain a protracted siege. The experiences of the Hebrews in Egypt had given them no training in warfare, but had tended to weaken rather than develop their courage. A generation of hardship in the desert under the inspiring direction of their prophet leader was necessary before they could become an efficient fighting force. It was also important that they should first intrench themselves in some semi-agricultural district and develop their resources and base of supply, before they could maintain a systematic and continuous attack.
IV.The Tribes that Entered Palestine from the South. The older narratives record an attempt on the part of the Israelites to capture Arad, one of the outlying Canaanite towns, and of their defeat at the hands of their foes. The testimony of these earliest narratives is that a majority of the Hebrew tribes remained for a generation or more in the wilderness, and ultimately entered Palestine from the east, rather than from the south. The prominence of Caleb, however, in the story of the spies and in the later account of the conquest of southern Canaan undoubtedly reflects the fact that the tribe of Caleb entered from the south, before the majority of the Hebrew tribes had settled in central Canaan. These Calebites were intrenched south of Hebron. Near them were found certain other Arab tribes, such as the Jerahmeelites, the Kenites and the Kenizzites. Possibly these were the vanguard of the Hebrew advance, or they may have already entered the South Country before the Hebrew tribes fled from Egypt. The subsequent records indicate that they affiliated with the Judahites and constituted a large and important part of that southern Israelite tribe.
V.Rebellions Against Moses’s Authority. The rivalry of different tribes and the hardship of their life in the desert naturally begat strife and rebellion. Hostility between rival tribes is the rule rather than the exception in Arabia. The authority of the tribal sheik or leader is ill-defined, and depends chiefly upon the needs of the moment and the personal ability of the leader. In the face of discouragements it was almost inevitable that discontent should find open expression and that many of the tribal sheiks should oppose the authority of their prophetic leader. This state of affairs is revealed in the many traditions of rebellions against Moses. Quick, decisive measures were doubtless adopted to put down these uprisings. It was by patience, tact and courage that the great leader finally overcame opposition and gradually welded the different tribes into a strong political unit.
VI.Significance of the Wilderness Sojourn. In the light of its historical background and the testimony of the earliest traditions, it is possible to estimate the significance to the Hebrews of their wilderness experiences. The necessities and hardships of their life gradually and inevitably gave them habits of courage, persistence and self-denial. Their strenuous life developed physical strength and endurance, courage and skill in warfare. It impressed upon them the necessity and advantages of combined action, and facilitated the work of Moses in moulding the incipient nation. Their constant feeling of hunger and fear of attack deepened their sense of dependence upon divine power. Their simple religious life, which apparently centred in Kadesh, enabled Moses to impress upon them his own sense of Jehovah’s constant presence and care for his people. On the other hand, as their judge and prophet, he was able definitely to illustrate those simple ethical principles, which appear from the first to have been the cornerstones of Israel’s faith and civilization. Thus, in divine Providence, quietly out in the solitude and privation of the wilderness, under the leadership of one of the world’s great prophets, a nation, ambitious, strong of limb and loyal to its tribal God and leader, was being prepared for the destiny which awaited it.