Two men hold a large branch of grapes while appealing to a crowd in a desert encampment near a sacred tent.

The Twelve Spies

Moses sent twelve leaders to scout Canaan from the wilderness of Paran, but the people rebelled after hearing the majority report, resulting in a forty-year period of wandering.

  • Numbers 13-14
  • Kadesh
  • 4 named participants

What the passage records

Numbers 13-14

At the command of the Lord, Moses sent twelve men, one from each ancestral tribe, from the wilderness of Paran to scout the land of Canaan. He instructed them to assess the strength of the inhabitants, the quality of the land, the nature of the cities, and the fertility of the soil (Numbers 13:17-20). The men traveled as far as Rehob and returned after forty days, bringing a cluster of grapes, pomegranates, and figs from the Valley of Eshcol. Upon arriving at Kadesh, they reported to Moses, Aaron, and the entire congregation that the land flowed with milk and honey, but ten of the spies claimed the inhabitants were too strong and the cities were walled and very large (Numbers 13:25-28).

Caleb silenced the people before Moses and advocated for an immediate ascent to take possession of the land. However, the other men spread a bad report, stating the land devours its inhabitants and that they felt like grasshoppers in the presence of the Nephilim (Numbers 13:30-33). The congregation wept throughout the night and grumbled against Moses and Aaron, suggesting they appoint a new leader to return to Egypt. Joshua son of Nun and Caleb tore their clothes and told the assembly that if the Lord was pleased with them, He would bring them into the land. The text does not say how the congregation responded except that they talked of stoning Joshua and Caleb before the glory of the Lord appeared at the tabernacle (Numbers 14:6-10).

God declared that because the people had tested Him ten times and refused to obey, the generation that grumbled would not see the land. The Lord stated their corpses would fall in the wilderness, and they would wander for forty years, one year for each day the land was scouted (Numbers 14:22-34). The ten men responsible for the bad report died by a plague before the Lord, but Joshua and Caleb remained alive. When the Israelites attempted to invade the hill country the following morning against Moses' instructions, the Amalekites and Canaanites defeated them because the Ark of the Covenant and Moses did not leave the camp (Numbers 14:37-45).

Outcome

The ten spies who brought the bad report died by a plague, and the congregation was sentenced to wander the wilderness for forty years (Numbers 14:33-37).

Who was there

4 of 4 named participants have a profile in the archive.