Numbers 13:1 Komentář

It is a memorable and very melancholy story which is related in this and the following chapter, of the turning back of Israel from the borders of Canaan, when they were just ready to set foot in it, and the sentencing of them to wander and perish in the wilderness for their unbelief and murmuring. It is referred to Psa 95:7, etc., and improved for warning to Christians, Heb 3:7, etc. In this chapter we have, I. The sending of twelve spies before them into Canaan (v. 1-16). II. The instructions given to these spies (Num 13:17-20). III. Their executing their commission according to their instructions, and their return from the search (Num 13:21-25). IV. The report they brought back to the camp of Israel (Num 13:26, etc.).

Here we have, I. Orders given to send spies to search out the land of Canaan. It is here said, God directed Moses to send them (Num 13:1, Num 13:2), but it appears by the repetition of the story afterwards (Deu 1:22) that the motion came originally from the people; they came to Moses, and said, We will send men before us; and it was the fruit of their unbelief. They would not take God's word that it was a good land, and that he would, without fail, put them in possession of it. They could not trust the pillar of cloud and fire to show them the way to it, but had a better opinion of their own politics than of God's wisdom. How absurd was it for them to send to spy out a land which God himself had spied out for them, to enquire the way into it when God himself had undertaken to show them the way! But thus we ruin ourselves by giving more credit to the reports and representations of sense than to divine revelation; we walk by sight, not by faith; whereas, if we will receive the witness of men, without doubt the witness of God is greater. The people making this motion to Moses, he (perhaps not aware of the unbelief at the bottom of it) consulted God in the case, who bade him gratify the people in this matter, and send spies before them: "Let them walk in their own counsels." Yet God was no way accessory to the sin that followed, for the sending of these spies was so far from being the cause of the sin that if the spies had done their duty, and the people theirs, it might have been the confirmation of their faith, and of good service to them. II. The persons nominated that were to be employed in this service (Num 13:4, etc.), one of each tribe, that it might appear to be the act of the people in general; and rulers, person of figure in their respective tribes, some of the rulers of thousands or hundreds, to put the greater credit upon their embassy. This was designed for the best, but it proved to have this ill effect that the quality of the persons occasioned the evil report they brought up to be the more credited and the people to be the more influenced by it. Some think that they are all named for the sake of two good ones that were among them, Caleb and Joshua. Notice is taken of the change of Joshua's name upon this occasion, Num 13:16. He was Moses's minister, but had been employed, though of the tribe of Ephraim, as general of the forces that were sent out against Amalek. The name by which he was generally called and known in his own tribe was Oshea, but Moses called him Joshua, in token of his affection to him and power over him; and now, it should seem, he ordered others to call him so, and fixed that to be his name henceforward. Oshea signifies a prayer for salvation, Save thou; Joshua signifies a promise of salvation, He will save, in answer to that prayer: so near is the relation between prayers and promises. Prayers prevail for promises, and promises direct and encourage prayers. Some think that Moses designed, by taking the first syllable of the name Jehovah and prefixing it to his name, which turned Hoshea into Jehoshua, to put an honour upon him, and to encourage him in this and all his future services with the assurances of God's presence. Yet after this he is called Hoshea, Deu 32:44. Jesus is the same name with Joshua, and it is the name of our Lord Christ, of whom Joshua was a type as successor to Moses, Israel's captain, and conqueror of Canaan. There was another of the same name, who was also a type of Christ, Zac 6:11. Joshua was the saviour of God's people from the powers of Canaan, but Christ is their Saviour from the powers of hell. III. The instructions given to those spies. They were sent into the land of Canaan the nearest way, to traverse the country, and to take account of its present state, Num 13:17. Two heads of enquiry were given them in charge, 1. Concerning the land itself: See what that is (Num 13:18, and again, Num 13:19), see whether it be good or bad, and (Num 13:20) whether it be fat or lean. All parts of the earth do not share alike in the blessing of fruitfulness; some countries are blessed with a richer soil than others. Moses himself was well satisfied that Canaan was a very good land, but he sent these spies to bring an account of it for the satisfaction of the people; as John Baptist sent to Jesus, to ask whether he was the Christ, not to inform himself, but to inform those he sent. They must take notice whether the air was healthful or no, what the soil was, and what the productions; and, for the better satisfaction of the people, they must bring with them some of the fruits. 2. Concerning the inhabitants - their number, few or many - their size and stature, whether strong able-bodied men or weak, - their habitations, whether they lived in tents or houses, whether in open villages or in walled towns, - whether the woods were standing as in those countries that are uncultivated, through the unskillfulness and slothfulness of the inhabitants, or whether the woods were cut down, and the country made champaign, for the convenience of tillage. These were the things they were to enquire about. Perhaps there had not been of late years such commerce between Egypt and Canaan as there was in Jacob's time, else they might have informed themselves of these things without sending men on purpose to search. See the advantage we may derive from books and learning, which acquaint those that are curious and inquisitive with the state of foreign countries, at a much greater distance than Canaan was now from Israel, without this trouble and expense. IV. Moses dismisses the spies with this charge, Be of good courage, intimating, not only that they should be themselves encouraged against the difficulties of this expedition, but that they should bring an encouraging account to the people and make the best of every thing. It was not only a great undertaking they were put upon, which required good management and resolution, but it was a great trust that was reposed in them, which required that they should be faithful.

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 13 In this chapter an order is given by the Lord, to send twelve men into the land of Canaan, to search and spy it, and which was accordingly executed, Num 13:1; and the names of the twelve persons are given, Num 13:4; the instructions they received from Moses, what part of the land they should enter into first, and what observations they should make on it, Num 13:17; which they attended to, and on their return brought some of the fruit of the land with them, Num 13:21; and gave an account of it, that it was a very fruitful land, but the inhabitants mighty, and their cities walled, Num 13:27; which threw the people into confusion, but that they were stilled by Caleb, one of the spies, who encouraged them, Num 13:30; but all the rest, excepting Joshua, brought an ill report of it, as not to be subdued and conquered by them, Num 13:31.

And the Lord Spake unto Moses,.... When in the wilderness of Paran, either at Rithmah or Kadesh; this was on the twenty ninth day of the month Sivan, on which day, the Jews say (o), the spies were sent to search the land, which was a scheme of the Israelites' own devising, and which they first proposed to Moses, who approved of it as prudential and political, at least he gave his assent unto it to please the people, and carried the affair to the Lord, and consulted him about it; who, rather permitting than approving, gave the following order; for the motion carried in it a good deal of unbelief, calling in question whether the land was so good as had been represented unto them, fearing it was not accessible, and that it would be difficult to get into it, and were desirous of knowing the best way of getting into it before they proceeded any further; all which were unnecessary, if they would have fully trusted in the Lord, in his word, promise, power, providence, and guidance; who had told them it was a land flowing with milk and honey; that he would show them the way to it, by going before them in a pillar of cloud and fire; that he would assuredly bring them into it, having espied it for them, and promised it unto them; so that there was no need on any account for them to send spies before them; however, to gratify them in this point, he assented to it: saying; as follows. (o) Ib. ut supra, (Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. & Meyer. Annotat. in ib. p. 338.) Pesikta, Chaskuni.

Of false prophets and their lying signs, Deu 13:1-6. Of those who endeavor to entice and seduce people to idolatry, Deu 13:7-8. The punishment of such, Deu 13:9-11. Of cities perverted from the pure worship of God, Deu 13:12-14. How that city is to be treated, Deu 13:15. All the spoil of it to be destroyed, Deu 13:16. Promises to them who obey these directions, Deu 13:17, Deu 13:18.

THE NAMES OF THE MEN WHO WERE SENT TO SEARCH THE LAND. (Num. 13:1-33) The Lord spake unto Moses, Send thou men, that they may search the land, of Canaan--Compare Deu 1:22, whence it appears, that while the proposal of delegating confidential men from each tribe to explore the land of Canaan emanated from the people who petitioned for it, the measure received the special sanction of God, who granted their request at once as a trial, and a punishment of their distrust.

Spies Sent Out. Murmuring of the People, and Their Punishment - Numbers 13 and 14 When they had arrived at Kadesh, in the desert of Paran (Num 13:26), Moses sent out spies by the command of God, and according to the wishes of the people, to explore the way by which they could enter into Canaan, and also the nature of the land, of its cities, and of its population (Num 13:1-20). The men who were sent out passed through the land, from the south to the northern frontier, and on their return reported that the land was no doubt one of pre-eminent goodness, but that it was inhabited by a strong people, who had giants among them, and were in possession of very large fortified towns (Num 13:21-29); whereupon Caleb declared that it was quite possible to conquer it, whilst the others despaired of overcoming the Canaanites, and spread an evil report among the people concerning the land (Num 13:30-33). The congregation then raised a loud lamentation, and went so far in their murmuring against Moses and Aaron, as to speak without reserve or secrecy of deposing Moses, and returning to Egypt under another leader: they even wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb, who tried to calm the excited multitude, and urged them to trust in the Lord. But suddenly the glory of the Lord interposed with a special manifestation of judgment (Num 14:1-10). Jehovah made known to Moses His resolution to destroy the rebellious nation, but suffered Himself to be moved by the intercession of Moses so far as to promise that He would preserve the nation, though He would exclude the murmuring multitude from the promised land (Num 14:11-25). He then directed Moses and Aaron to proclaim to the people the following punishment for their repeated rebellion: that they should bear their iniquity for forty years in the wilderness; that the whole nation that had come out of Egypt should die there, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua; and that only their children should enter the promised land (Num 14:26-39). The people were shocked at this announcement, and resolved to force a way into Canaan; but, as Moses predicted, they were beaten by the Canaanites and Amalekites, and driven back to Hormah (Num 14:40-45). These events form a grand turning-point in the history of Israel, in which the whole of the future history of the covenant nation is typically reflected. The constantly repeated unfaithfulness of the nation could not destroy the faithfulness of God, or alter His purposes of salvation. In wrath Jehovah remembered mercy; through judgment He carried out His plan of salvation, that all the world might know that no flesh was righteous before Him, and that the unbelief and unfaithfulness of men could not overturn the truth of God. (Note: According to Knobel, the account of these events arose from two or three documents interwoven with one another in the following manner: Num 13:1-17a, Num 13:21, Num 13:25-26, Num 13:32, and Num 14:2, Num 14:5-7, Num 14:10, Num 14:36-38, was written by the Elohist, the remainder by the Jehovist, - Num 13:22-24, Num 13:27-31; Num 14:1, Num 14:11-25, Num 14:39-45, being taken from his first document, and Num 13:17-20; Num 14:2-4, Num 14:8-10, Num 14:26-33, Num 14:35, from his second; whilst, lastly, Num 13:33, and the commencement of Num 14:1, were added from his own resources, because it contains contradictory statements. "According to the Elohist," says this critic, "the spies went through the whole land (Num 13:32; Num 14:7), and penetrated even to the north of the country (Num 13:21): they took forty days to this (Num 13:25; Num 14:34); they had among them Joshua, whose name was altered at that time (Jos 13:16), and who behaved as bravely as Caleb (Num 13:8; Num 14:6, Num 14:38). According to the Jehovistic completion, the spies did not go through the whole land, but only entered into it (Num 13:27), merely going into the neighbourhood of Hebron, in the south country (Num 13:22-23); there they saw the gigantic Anakites (Num 13:22, Num 13:28, Num 13:33), cut off the large bunch of grapes in the valley of Eshcol (Num 13:23-24), and then came back to Moses. Caleb was the only one who showed himself courageous, and Joshua was not with them at all (Num 13:30; Num 14:24)." But these discrepancies do not exist in the biblical narrative; on the contrary, they have been introduced by the critic himself, by the forcible separation of passages from their context, and by arbitrary interpolations. The words of the spies in Num 13:27, "We came into the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey," do not imply that they only came into the southern portion of the land, any more than the fact that they brought a bunch of grapes from the neighbourhood of Hebron is a proof that they did not go beyond the valley of Eshcol. Moreover, it is not stated in Num 13:30 that Joshua was not found among the tribes. Again, the circumstance that in Num 14:11-25 and Num 14:26-35 the same thing is said twice over-the special instructions as to the survey of the land in Num 13:17-20, which were quite unnecessary for intelligent leaders, - the swearing of God (Num 14:16, Num 14:21, Num 14:23), - the forced explanation of the name Eshcol, in Num 13:24, and other things of the same kind, - are said to furnish further proofs of the interpolation of Jehovistic clauses into the Elohistic narrative; and lastly, a number of the words employed are supposed to place this beyond all doubt. Of these proofs, however, the first rests upon a simple misinterpretation of the passage in question, and a disregard of the peculiarities of Hebrew history; whilst the rest are either subjective conclusions, dictated by the taste of vulgar rationalism, or inferences and assumptions, of which the tenability and force need first of all to be established.)

Numbers 13:1-17 Despatch of the Spies of Canaan. - Num 13:1. The command of Jehovah, to send out men to spy out the land of Canaan, was occasioned, according to the account given by Moses in Deu 1:22., by a proposal of the congregation, which pleased Moses, so that he laid the matter before the Lord, who then commanded him to send out for this purpose, "of every tribe of their fathers a man, every one a ruler among them, i.e., none but men who were princes in their tribes, who held the prominent position of princes, i.e., distinguished persons of rank; or, as it is stated in Num 13:3, "heads of the children of Israel," i.e., not the tribe-princes of the twelve tribes, but those men, out of the total number of the heads of the tribes and families of Israel, who were the most suitable for such a mission, though the selection was to be made in such a manner that every tribe should be represented by one of its own chiefs. That there were none of the twelve tribe-princes among them is apparent from a comparison of their names (Num 13:4-15) with the (totally different) names of the tribe-princes (Num 1:3., Num 7:12.). Caleb and Joshua are the only spies that are known. The order, in which the tribes are placed in the list of the names in Num 13:4-15, differs from that in Num 1:5-15 only in the fact that in Num 13:10 Zebulun is separated from the other sons of Leah, and in Num 13:11 Manasseh is separated from Ephraim. The expression "of the tribe of Joseph," in Num 13:11, stands for "of the children of Joseph," in Num 1:10; Num 34:23. At the close of the list it is still further stated, that Moses called Hoshea (i.e., help), the son of Nun, Jehoshua, contracted into Joshua (i.e., Jehovah-help, equivalent to, whose help is Jehovah). This statement does not present any such discrepancy, when compared with Exo 17:9, Exo 17:13; Exo 24:13; Exo 32:17; Exo 33:11, and Num 11:28, where Joshua bears this name as the servant of Moses at a still earlier period, as to point to any diversity of authorship. As there is nothing of a genealogical character in any of these passages, so as to warrant us in expecting to find the family name of Joshua in them, the name Joshua, by which Hosea had become best known in history, could be used proleptically in them all. On the other hand, however, it is not distinctly stated in the verse before us, that this was the occasion on which Moses gave Hosea the new name of Joshua. As the Vav consec. frequently points out merely the order of thought, the words may be understood without hesitation in the following sense: These are the names borne by the heads of the tribes to be sent out as spies, as they stand in the family registers according to their descent; Hosea, however, was named Joshua by Moses; which would not by any means imply that the alteration in the name had not been made till then. It is very probable that Moses may have given him the new name either before or after the defeat of the Amalekites (Exo 17:9.), or when he took him into his service, though it has not been mentioned before; whilst here the circumstances themselves required that it should be stated that Hosea, as he was called in the list prepared and entered in the documentary record according to the genealogical tables of the tribes, had received from Moses the name of Joshua. In Num 13:17-20 Moses gives them the necessary instructions, defining more clearly the motive which the congregation had assigned for sending them out, namely, that they might search out the way into the land and to its towns (Deu 1:22). "Get you up there (זה in the south country, and go up to the mountain." Negeb, i.e., south country, lit., dryness, aridity, from נגב, to be dry or arid (in Syr., Chald, and Samar.). Hence the dry, parched land, in contrast to the well-watered country (Jos 15:19; Jdg 1:15), was the name given to the southern district of Canaan, which forms the transition from the desert to the strictly cultivated land, and bears for the most part the character of a steppe, in which tracts of sand and heath are intermixed with shrubs, grass, and vegetables, whilst here and there corn is also cultivated; a district therefore which was better fitted for grazing than for agriculture, though it contained a number of towns and villages (see at Jos 15:21-32). "The mountain" is the mountainous part of Palestine, which was inhabited by Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites (Num 13:29), and was called the mountains of the Amorites, on account of their being the strongest of the Canaanitish tribes (Deu 1:7, Deu 1:19.). It is not to be restricted, as Knobel supposes, to the limits of the so-called mountains of Judah (Jos 15:48-62), but included the mountains of Israel or Ephraim also (Jos 11:21; Jos 20:7), and formed, according to Deu 1:7, the backbone of the whole land of Canaan up to Lebanon. Num 13:18-20 They were to see the land, "what it was," i.e., what was its character, and the people that dwelt in it, whether they were strong, i.e., courageous and brave, or weak, i.e., spiritless and timid, and whether they were little or great, i.e., numerically; (Num 13:19) what the land was, whether good or bad, sc., with regard to climate and cultivation, and whether the towns were camps, i.e., open villages and hamlets, or fortified places; also (Num 13:20) whether the land was fat or lean, i.e., whether it had a fertile soil or not, and whether there were trees in it or not. All this they were to search out courageously (התחזק, to show one's self courageous in any occupation), and to fetch (some) of the fruits of the land, as it was the time of the first-ripe grapes. In Palestine the first grapes ripen as early as August, and sometimes even in July (vid., Robinson, ii. 100, ii. 611), whilst the vintage takes place in September and October.