Bible Strands
Numbers 13:25
After forty days the men returned from spying out the land,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the conclusion of the twelve spies' mission as they complete their reconnaissance of Canaan and prepare to deliver their findings to Moses and the Israelite camp at Kadesh.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיָּשֻׁבוּ (va-yāšûḇû) translates "and they returned," combined with מִתּוּר הָאָרֶץ (mîṯûr hāʾāreṣ) for "from spying out the land." The temporal phrase מִקֵּץ אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם (mîqēṣ ʾarbaʿîm yôm) literally marks "from the end of forty days."
The thread — This forty-day duration parallels Moses' forty-day mountain encounters in Exodus 24:18 and Exodus 34:28, while Numbers 14:33 directly links the spies' subsequent report to the forty-year wilderness judgment.
Why it lands — The verse documents the factual completion of the reconnaissance, requiring the reader to observe how a precise mission timeline sets the stage for the congregation's reaction and the narrative's turning point.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.
Cross-references
- Exodus 34:28 So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
- Exodus 24:18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
- Numbers 14:33 Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.