Bible Strands
Numbers 13:32
So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The twelve spies address the Israelite congregation immediately after returning from Canaan, delivering their assessment of the territory before the community's subsequent rebellion.
The words — The Hebrew phrase דִּבַּת הָ/אָ֙רֶץ (divvat ha'aretz) literally translates to "a bad report of the land," capturing the spies' negative assessment of the territory they explored.
The thread — This negative assessment echoes in Numbers 14:36, where the same spies incite the congregation against Moses, and parallels the towering stature of the Amorites mentioned in Amos 2:9.
Why it lands — The text records the spies' factual claims about the land's fertility and the inhabitants' size, requiring the reader to distinguish between observable geography and the fear-driven inference that the mission is impossible.
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 brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
Cross-references
- Amos 2:9 Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, though his height was like that of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below.
- Numbers 14:36 So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land—
- Ezekiel 36:13 For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because people say to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,’
- Matthew 23:13 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- Deuteronomy 1:28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying: ‘The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’”
- 2 Samuel 21:20 And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha,
- Numbers 13:28 Nevertheless, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We even saw the descendants of Anak there.
- 1 Chronicles 20:6 And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha,