Bible Strands
Numbers 13:27
And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The twelve scouts speak to Moses at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Paran after completing their forty-day survey of Canaan. They deliver a spoken report to both Moses and the assembled congregation of Israel.
The words — וַ/יְסַפְּרוּ־ (va/y.sa.pe.ru-) means "and they recounted," while בָּ֕אנוּ (Ba.nu) translates literally as "we went." These verbs frame the scouts' factual return and entry into the territory.
The thread — The phrase "flowing with milk and honey" echoes the divine promises recorded in Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17, and Exodus 13:5. Those earlier passages use the same description to mark the land as the destination of rescue and covenant fulfillment.
Why it lands — The text records the scouts' factual observation of the land's fertility before introducing their caution about fortified cities and strong inhabitants. A reader must note that the report begins with confirmation of God's promise but immediately precedes a shift to fear rather than faith.
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 told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
Cross-references
- Exodus 3:8 I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
- Exodus 3:17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your affliction in Egypt, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
- Exodus 13:5 And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you shall keep this service in this month.
- Exodus 33:3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way.”
- Deuteronomy 26:9 And He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
- Deuteronomy 31:20 When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant.
- Deuteronomy 1:25 They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us word: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”
- Deuteronomy 26:11 So you shall rejoice—you, the Levite, and the foreigner dwelling among you—in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.
- Deuteronomy 27:3 Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
- Numbers 14:8 If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us.