Numbers 13:27

_AND THEY TOLD HIM, AND SAID, WE CAME UNTO THE LAND WHITHER THOU SENTEST US, AND SURELY IT FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY; AND THIS IS THE FRUIT OF IT._ They told him, and said. 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....

26-33 We may wonder that the people of Israel staid forty days for the return of their spies, when they were ready to enter Canaan, under all the assurances of success they could have from the Divine power, and the miracles that had hitherto attended them. But they distrusted God's power and promise. How much we stand in our own light by our unbelief! At length the messengers returned; but the greater part discouraged the people from going forward to Canaan. Justly are the Israelites left to this temptation, for putting confidence in the judgment of men, when they had the word of God to trust in. Though they had found the land as good as God had said, yet they would not believe it to be as sure as he had said, but despaired of having it, though Eternal Truth had engaged it to them. This was the representation of the evil spies. Caleb, however, encouraged them to go forward, though secon...

Verse Numbers 13:27. _WE CAME UNTO THE LAND, C._] It is astonishing that men so dastardly as these should have had courage enough to risk their persons in searching the land. But probably though destitute of valour they had a sufficiency of cunning, and this carried them through. The report they brought was exceedingly discouraging, and naturally tended to produce the effect mentioned in the next chapter. The conduct of Joshua and Caleb was alone magnanimous, and worthy of the cause in which they were embarked....

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 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 Numbers 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, Exodus 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 good

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

FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY— See Exodus 3:17....

C. SURVEY AND REPORT vv. 21-33 TEXT Numbers 13:21. So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. 22. And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 24. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 25. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. 26. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought b

THE SENDING OF THE SPIES AND THEIR REPORT 8. Oshea] RV 'Hoshea,' meaning 'help' or 'salvation.' Joshua, or Jehoshua (Numbers 13:16), means 'Jehovah is my help': see on Exodus 17:9....