13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up 9 and occupy it, 10 for we are well able to conquer it.” 11 13:31 But the men 12 who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!” 13:32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging 13 report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through 14 to investigate is a land that devours 15 its inhabitants. 16 All the people we saw there 17 are of great stature. 13:33 We even saw the Nephilim 18 there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves 19 and to them.” 20
1 tc The MT has the singular, but the ancient versions and Smr have the plural.
2 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the following clause. The first verse gave the account of their journey over the whole land; this section focuses on what happened in the area of Hebron, which would be the basis for the false report.
3 sn These names are thought to be three clans that were in the Hebron area (see Josh 15:14; Judg 1:20). To call them descendants of Anak is usually taken to mean that they were large or tall people (2 Sam 21:18-22). They were ultimately driven out by Caleb.
4 sn The text now provides a brief historical aside for the readers. Zoan was probably the city of Tanis, although that is disputed today by some scholars. It was known in Egypt in the New Kingdom as “the fields of Tanis,” which corresponded to the “fields of Zoar” in the Hebrew Bible (Ps 78:12, 43).
5 tn The word (אֶפֶס, ’efes) forms a very strong adversative. The land was indeed rich and fruitful, but….”
6 tn Heb “the people who are living in the land.”
7 tn Heb “by the side [hand] of.”
8 sn For more discussion on these people groups, see D. J. Wiseman, ed., Peoples of Old Testament Times.
9 tn The construction is emphatic, using the cohortative with the infinitive absolute to strengthen it: עָלֹה נַעֲלֶה (’aloh na’aleh, “let us go up”) with the sense of certainty and immediacy.
10 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive brings the cohortative idea forward: “and let us possess it”; it may also be subordinated to form a purpose or result idea.
11 tn Here again the confidence of Caleb is expressed with the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense: יָכוֹל נוּכַל (yakhol nukhal), “we are fully able” to do this. The verb יָכַל (yakhal) followed by the preposition lamed means “to prevail over, to conquer.”
12 tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.
13 tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.
14 tn Heb “which we passed over in it”; the pronoun on the preposition serves as a resumptive pronoun for the relative, and need not be translated literally.
15 tn The verb is the feminine singular participle from אָכַל (’akhal); it modifies the land as a “devouring land,” a bold figure for the difficulty of living in the place.
16 sn The expression has been interpreted in a number of ways by commentators, such as that the land was infertile, that the Canaanites were cannibals, that it was a land filled with warlike dissensions, or that it denotes a land geared for battle. It may be that they intended the land to seem infertile and insecure.
17 tn Heb “in its midst.”
18 tc The Greek version uses gigantes (“giants”) to translate “the Nephilim,” but it does not retain the clause “the sons of Anak are from the Nephilim.”
sn The Nephilim are the legendary giants of antiquity. They are first discussed in Gen 6:4. This forms part of the pessimism of the spies’ report.
19 tn Heb “in our eyes.”
20 tn Heb “in their eyes.”