16. These are the names of the men Moses sent out to explore the land. (Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by the name Joshua.)
17. Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country.
18. See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many.
19. See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps?
20. Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)
21. So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.
22. Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai—all descendants of Anak—lived. (The ancient town of Hebron was founded seven years before the Egyptian city of Zoan.)