18. See what the land looks like. Are the people who live there strong or weak? Are there a few or many?
19. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What about the towns they live in—do they have walls, or are they open like camps?
20. What about the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees there? Try to bring back some of the fruit from that land.” (It was the season for the first grapes.)
21. So they went up and explored the land. They went from the Desert of Zin all the way to Rehob by Lebo Hamath.
22. They went through the southern area to Hebron. That is where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai lived. They were the descendants of Anak. (The city of Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23. In the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch of a grapevine. It had one bunch of grapes on it. They carried that branch on a pole between two of them. They also got some pomegranates and figs.
24. They call that place the Valley of Eshcol. That is because the Israelites cut off the bunch of grapes there.
25. After 40 days of exploring the land, the men returned to the camp.
26. They came back to Moses and Aaron and all the Israelites at Kadesh. This was in the Desert of Paran. The men reported to them and showed everybody the fruit from the land.
27. They told Moses, “We went to the land where you sent us. It is a land where much food grows! Here is some of its fruit.
28. But the people who live there are strong. Their cities are walled and large. We even saw some Anakites there.
29. The Amalekites live in the southern area. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the mountains. The Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan River.”
30. Then Caleb told the people near Moses to be quiet. Caleb said, “We should go up and take the land for ourselves. We can do it.”
31. But the men who had gone with him said, “We can’t attack those people. They are stronger than we are.”