See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many.
Parallel translations
- WEB See the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
- KJV And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;
- BSB See what the land is like and whether its people are strong or weak, few or many.
- NKJV and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many;
- NASB See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many.
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 tells them to assess the land and whether its people are strong or weak. The questions concern both the land's nature and its inhabitants.
Overview
Moses charges the spies to observe the land and gauge the strength and number of its people. The inquiry is reasonable in itself, but the use the majority will make of it—fear instead of faith—turns it sour. The mission tests whether Israel will weigh the obstacles against the power of the God who promised them victory.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Ezek 34:14I will feed them with good pasture; and on the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed on the mountains of Israel.
- Exod 3:8I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 13:18 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.