Discovery BoxNumbers 13:23-27 
Context13:23 When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff 1 between two men, as well as some of the pomegranates and the figs. 13:24 That place was called 2 the Eshcol Valley, 3 because of the cluster 4 of grapes that the Israelites cut from there. 13:25 They returned from investigating the land after forty days.
13:26 They came back 5 to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. 6 They reported 7 to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land. 13:27 They told Moses, 8 “We went to the land where you sent us. 9 It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, 10 and this is its fruit.
1 tn The word is related etymologically to the verb for “slip, slide, bend, totter.” This would fit the use very well. A pole that would not bend would be hard to use to carry things, but a pole or stave that was flexible would serve well.
2 tn The verb is rendered as a passive because there is no expressed subject.
3 tn Or “Wadi Eshcol.” The translation “brook” is too generous; the Hebrew term refers to a river bed, a ravine or valley through which torrents of rain would rush in the rainy season; at other times it might be completely dry.
4 tn The word “Eshcol” is drawn from the Hebrew expression concerning the “cluster of grapes.” The word is probably retained in the name Burj Haskeh, two miles north of Damascus.
5 tn The construction literally has “and they went and they entered,” which may be smoothed out as a verbal hendiadys, the one verb modifying the other.
6 sn Kadesh is Ain Qadeis, about 50 miles (83 km) south of Beer Sheba. It is called Kadesh-barnea in Num 32:8.
7 tn Heb “They brought back word”; the verb is the Hiphil preterite of שׁוּב (shuv).
8 tn Heb “told him and said.” The referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn The relative clause modifies “the land.” It is constructed with the relative and the verb: “where you sent us.”
10 sn This is the common expression for the material abundance of the land (see further, F. C. Fensham, “An Ancient Tradition of the Fertility of Palestine,” PEQ 98 [1966]: 166-67).
