1. The Lord said to Moses,
2. “Choose one of the leaders from each of the twelve tribes and send them as spies to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.”
16. These are the spies Moses sent to explore the land. He changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.
17. When Moses sent them out, he said to them, “Go north from here into the southern part of the land of Canaan and then on into the hill country.
18. Find out what kind of country it is, how many people live there, and how strong they are.
19. Find out whether the land is good or bad and whether the people live in open towns or in fortified cities.
20. Find out whether the soil is fertile and whether the land is wooded. And be sure to bring back some of the fruit that grows there.” (It was the season when grapes were beginning to ripen.)
21. So the men went north and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin in the south all the way to Rehob, near Hamath Pass in the north.
22. They went first into the southern part of the land and came to Hebron, where the clans of Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of a race of giants called the Anakim, lived. (Hebron was founded seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23. They came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there they cut off a branch which had one bunch of grapes on it so heavy that it took two men to carry it on a pole between them. They also brought back some pomegranates and figs.
24. (That place was named the Valley of Eshcol because of the bunch of grapes the Israelites cut off there.)
25. After exploring the land for forty days, the spies returned
26. to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had brought.