When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up there into the Negev; then go up into the hill country.
Parallel translations
- WEB Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way by the South, and go up into the hill country.
- KJV And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:
- BSB When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev and into the hill country.
- NKJV Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains,
- NLT Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses sends the spies into Canaan, directing them through the Negev and hill country. The mission to survey the land begins in earnest.
Overview
Moses commissions the twelve, instructing them on the route into the land. The detailed directions show the mission was a genuine reconnaissance of the inheritance God promised. The spies are sent to see firsthand the good land the LORD was giving.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Judg 1:9After that, the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, and in the South, and in the lowland.
- Gen 12:9Abram traveled, still going on toward the South.
- Gen 13:1Abram went up out of Egypt — he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him — into the South.
- Judg 1:15She said to him, “Give me a blessing; because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.” Then Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
- Josh 15:3and it went out southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and went up by the south of Kadesh Barnea, and passed along by Hezron, went up to Addar, and turned towards Karka;
- Judg 1:19Yahweh was with Judah; and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
- Gen 14:10Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and some fell there, and those who remained fled to the hills.
- Num 13:29Amalek dwells in the land of the South. The Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the hill country. The Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along the side of the Jordan.”
- Num 13:21–22So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath.
- Deut 1:44The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah.
- Num 14:40They rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned.”
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 13:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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