Numbers 13:23

_SO THEY WENT UP, AND SEARCHED THE LAND FROM THE WILDERNESS OF ZIN UNTO REHOB, AS MEN COME TO HAMATH._ So they ... searched the land - they advanced from south to north, reconnoitring 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, and which, under the names of el-Ghor and el-Arabah, forms the continuation of the Jordan valley, extending from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah. REHOB - or Beth-rehob, was a city and district situated, according to some, eastward of Sidon, and, according to others, is the same as el-Hule, an extensive and fertile champaign country, at the foot of Antilibanus, a few leagues below Peneas. AS MEN COME TO HAMATH - or, "the entering in of Hamath" (2 Kings 14:25), now the valley of Baalbek, a mountai

21-25 The searchers of the land brought a bunch of grapes with them, and other fruits, as proofs of the goodness of the country; which was to Israel both the earnest and the specimen of all the fruits of Canaan. Such are the present comforts 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....

Verse Numbers 13:23. _THEY BARE IT BETWEEN TWO UPON A STAFF_] It would be very easy to produce a great number of witnesses to prove that grapes in the promised land, and indeed in various other hot countries, grow to a prodigious size. By _Calmet, Scheuchzer_, and _Harmer_, this subject has been exhausted, and to these I may refer the reader. Pliny mentions bunches of grapes in Africa each of which was larger than an _infant_. _Radzvil_ saw at Rhodes bunches of grapes three quarters of an ell in length, each grape as large as a plum. _Dandini_ saw grapes of this size at Mount Libanus; and _Paul Lucas_ mentions some bunches which he saw at Damascus that weighed above forty-five pounds. From the most authentic accounts the Egyptian _grape_ is very small, and this being the only one with which the Israelites were acquainted, the great size of the gr...

The brook of Eshcol is by some identified with the rich valley immediately to the north of Hebron; (but by others with Wady Hanein to the south of Hebron). The valley was, in all likelihood, originally named after one of the three chiefs who were confederate with Abraham Genesis 14:24; but, as often came to pass, the Israelites, wittingly or unwittingly, took up in a new and significant sense the name which they found; and to them the valley thus became the Valley of the Cluster. Bunches of grapes are found in Palestine of many pounds weight....

EXPOSITION THE REBELLION AT KADESH (Numbers 13:1, Numbers 14:1). NUMBERS 13:2 SEND THOU MEN, THAT THEY MAY SEARCH THE LAND. If this account of the mission of the spies be compared with that given in Deuteronomy 1:20-5, it may be seen in a striking instance how entirely different a colour may be put upon the same circumstances by two inspired narratives. No one indeed will affirm that the two records are contradictory, or even inconsistent, and yet they leave an entirely different impression upon the min

AND THEY CAME UNTO THE BROOK OF ESHCOL,.... Or "valley of Eshcol" u, which is here so called by anticipation from the following circumstance; and perhaps had not this name given it, until the children of Israel were possessed of the land, and then they called it so, in memory of what was done here at this time; it was not far from Hebron, as may be concluded from thence; and so Jerom, relating the travels of Paula in those parts, says w, she came from Betzur to Eshcol, where having seen the little cells of Sarah, the cradle of Isaac, and the traces of the oak of Abraham, under which he saw the day of Christ, and was glad, rising up from thence, she went up to Hebron; which shows this Eshcol to be near Hebron, and to lie low, and was a valley; see Deuteronomy 1:24; AND CUT DOWN FROM THENCE A BRANCH, WITH ONE CLUSTER OF GRAPES; in this valley was a vineyard, or at lea

4. AT KADESH-BARNEA AND ISRAEL'S UNBELIEF CHAPTER 13 _ 1. The command to search out the land (Numbers 13:1)_ 2. The names of the spies (Numbers 13:4) 3. Directions given (Numbers 13:17) 4. Their explorations (Numbers 13:21) 5. The report they brought (Numbers 13:26) The crisis is reached with this chapter. The events of the preceding Chapter s are the prelude to the complete failure and disaster. To understand the situation we must consult...

THE ESPIAL OF CANAAN. This narrative is marked by numerous discrepancies, due to its being a fusion of two accounts drawn from JE and P. In the one (JE) the spies start probably from Kadesh (Numbers 13:26; Numbers 32:8, _cf._ Deuteronomy 1:19 f., Joshua 14:7), the survey is limited to the S. of Palestine (Numbers 13:22 f.), and the report of the land is favourable, but of the inhabitants alarming (Numbers 13:27), Caleb alone dissenting from the latter represe

AND. Note the Figure of speech _Polysyndeton_ (App-6), calling attention to each of the three items. GRAPES, &C. No mere accident that these three were brought. These symbolical of the "fruit" of our Land, even of Him Who is the true Vine. _He_ comes _first._ POMEGRANATES. His _worship_ comes next (largely used symbolically in tabernacle and temple, see Exo 27:28, Exo 27:29 and 2 Chronicles 3 and 2 Chronicles 4). FIGS. The common support of life in the East, next to bread. These symbolize the common duties of life. (The grapes and pomegranates its luxuries and spiritual privileges)....

THEY CAME UNTO THE BROOK OF ESHCOL— The original word signifies _a brook or valley. Valley_ appears much more proper for this place, as it seems rather uncouth to say, _they cut down a branch from a brook._ The reason for the name _Eshcol_ is given in the 24th verse. Some have thought that _they bare_ this _cluster of grapes_ upon a _staff_ or _bier,_ (see chap. Numbers 4:10.) merely on account of its size and weight; and, accordingly, authors are cited to prove, that the vines and grapes in those eastern countries are of an extraordinary magnitude, Huetius, in his Quaest.—Alnet mentions bunches of grapes in some islands of the Archipelago, of thirty-six or forty pounds weight; and Pliny describes bunches of grapes in Africa which exceed the size of young children, _quae infantum puerorum magnitudinem exsuperant._ Strabo, in his Geog. lib. 2: reports, th