Numbers 13:17

The Spies’ Instructions

13:17 When Moses sent ¹  them to investigate the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev, ²  and then go up into the hill country

Numbers 13:31

13:31 But the men ³  who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!”

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¹ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb of the same formation to express a temporal clause.

² tn The instructions had them first go up into the southern desert of the land, and after passing through that, into the hill country of the Canaanites. The text could be rendered “into the Negev” as well as “through the Negev.”

³ tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.