Numbers 13:32

_AND THEY BROUGHT UP AN EVIL REPORT OF THE LAND WHICH THEY HAD SEARCHED UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, SAYING, THE LAND, THROUGH WHICH WE HAVE GONE TO SEARCH IT, IS A LAND THAT EATETH UP THE INHABITANTS THEREOF; AND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WE SAW IN IT ARE MEN OF A GREAT STATURE._ A land that eateth up the inhabitants - i:e., an unhealthy climate and country. Jewish writers say that in the course of their travels the spies 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 (Joshua 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....

32._But the men that went up with him said. _We here see, as in a mirror, how impiety gradually gathers audaciousness in evil. At the outset, the authors of the rebellion were ambiguous in their expressions, and contented themselves with obscure insinuations; they now throw aside all shame, and openly and acrimoniously oppose the address of Caleb, which was certainly nothing less than casting discredit on God’s words, and setting at naught His power. God had promised to give the land to the Israelites; they deny that He will do so. He had afforded them many proofs that nothing is difficult to Him: they deny that His aid will suffice against the forces of their enemies. Moreover, they at length break out into such impudence, that in their falsehood they contradict themselves. They had confessed that the land was rich; they now declare that it consumes or devours its inhabitants, which is...

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 13:32. _MEN OF A GREAT STATURE_] אנשי מדות _anshey_ _middoth_, men of measures - two men's height; i. e., exceedingly tall men....

A LAND THAT EATETH UP ... - i. e. it is a land which from its position is exposed to incessant attacks from one quarter and another, and so its occupants must be always armed and watchful....

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 BROUGHT UP AN EVIL REPORT OF THE LAND WHICH THEY HAD SEARCHED UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,.... Before, they gave a good report of the land itself, as a very fruitful one, answering to their expectations and wishes; but now they change their language, and give a different account of it; which shows their want of integrity, and to what length an opposition carried them, to say things contrary to their real sentiments, and to what they themselves had said before: SAYING, THE LAND THROUGH WHICH WE HAVE GONE TO SEARCH IT, [IS] A LAND THAT EATETH UP THE INHABITANTS THEREOF; the meaning seems to be, that it was so barren and unfruitful that it did not produce food sufficient for the inhabitants of it, who were ready to starve, and many did starve through want, and so was the reverse of what they had before said; for which reason, Gussetius o thinks the sense is, that the land was the...

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

BROUGHT UP AN EVIL REPORT. sent forth. slander. Compare Numbers 14:37. WE SAW. The language of unbelief....