שלח

In the wilderness of Paran near Kadesh, God spoke to Moses: “Send agents to scout the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelite people. Send one chieftain from each tribe.” Moses chose twelve leaders, including Caleb from Judah and Hosea son of Nun, whom Moses renamed Joshua.

Moses gave them careful instructions: “Go up into the Negeb and the hill country. See whether the people are strong or weak, few or many. Are the towns open or fortified? Is the soil rich? Is it wooded? Bring back some of the fruit.”

It was the season of the first ripe grapes. The scouts traveled from the wilderness of Zin up to Rehob, and they came to Hebron, where Anakites lived. In the wadi Eshcol they cut a single, enormous cluster of grapes, so heavy that two men carried it on a pole. They also brought back pomegranates and figs. After forty days, they returned to the camp to report what they had seen.

The scouts gathered before Moses, Aaron, and the whole community. “The land truly flows with milk and honey,” they said, holding up the fruit. “But the people there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We saw Anakites. Amalekites live in the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites in the hills; and Canaanites by the Sea and along the Jordan.”

Caleb hushed the crowd. “Let us go up at once,” he said. “We can surely overcome it.” But the others insisted, “We cannot attack, they are stronger than we are.” They spread frightening talk: “The land devours its settlers. We saw Nephilim, and we felt like grasshoppers.”

That night the people cried and complained, “If only we had died in Egypt, or here! Why is God bringing us to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be carried off. Let’s go back to Egypt!” Moses and Aaron fell facedown. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and begged the people not to rebel. As the crowd threatened them, God’s Presence appeared at the Tent of Meeting.

God said to Moses that the people had seen signs and still would not trust. Moses pleaded for mercy, reminding God that the nations had heard of God’s power and that God is slow to anger and full of kindness. God answered, “I pardon, as you have asked.” Yet the adults who kept rejecting God would not enter the land; only Joshua and Caleb would. The people would wander forty years, one year for each of the forty scouting days. Those who spread the worst report died by plague.

The next morning some tried to march into the hill country anyway, but Moses warned them not to go without God. They went, and Amalekites and Canaanites struck them down at Hormah.

Then God taught laws for offerings to be brought with grain and wine, and said there would be one law for Israelites and for the stranger living among them. God also commanded fringes called tzitzit, knotted strings on the corners of garments with a blue cord, so that seeing them would help the people remember God’s commandments.