Numbers 13:1
Speak unto Moses — In answer to the peoples petition about it, as is evident from Deuteronomy 1:22. And it is probable, the people desired it out of diffidence of God's promise.... [ Continue Reading ]
Speak unto Moses — In answer to the peoples petition about it, as is evident from Deuteronomy 1:22. And it is probable, the people desired it out of diffidence of God's promise.... [ Continue Reading ]
A ruler — A person of wisdom and authority.... [ Continue Reading ]
Oshea — Called also Joshua, Numbers 13:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
Of Joseph — The name of Joseph is elsewhere appropriated to Ephraim, here to Manasseh; possibly to aggravate the sin of the ruler of this tribe, who did so basely degenerate from his noble ancestor.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehoshua — Oshea notes a desire of salvation, signifying, Save we pray thee; but Jehoshua, or Joshua, includes a promise of salvation, He will save. So this was a prophecy of his succession to Moses in the government, and of the success of his arms. Joshua is the same name with Jesus, of whom Joshua... [ Continue Reading ]
Southward — Into the southern part of Canaan, which was the nearest part, and the worst too, being dry and desert, and therefore fit for them to enter and pass through with less observation. Into the mountain — Into the mountainous country, and thence into the valleys, and so take a survey of the wh... [ Continue Reading ]
What it is — Both for largeness, and for nature and quality.... [ Continue Reading ]
In tents — As the Arabians did; or in unwalled villages, which, like tents, are exposed to an enemy.... [ Continue Reading ]
Fat — Rich and fertile.... [ Continue Reading ]
Zin — In the south of Canaan, differing from the wilderness of Sin, which was nigh unto Egypt. To Hamath — From the south they passed through the whole land to the northern parts of it; Rehob was a city in the north — west part, Hamath, a city in the north — east.... [ Continue Reading ]
By the south — Moses having described their progress from south to north, more particularly relates some memorable places and passages. They came — Heb. He came, namely, Caleb, as appears from Joshua 14:9, Joshua 14:12, Joshua 14:14. For the spies distributed their work among them, and went either s... [ Continue Reading ]
Upon a staff — Either for the weight of it, considering the, length of the way they were to carry it, or for the preservation of it whole and entire. In those eastern and southern countries there are vines and grapes of an extraordinary bigness as Strabo and Pliny affirm.... [ Continue Reading ]
Eschol — That is, a cluster of grapes.... [ Continue Reading ]
They returned after forty days — 'Tis a wonder the people had patience to stay forty days, when they were just ready to enter Canaan, under all the assurances of success they could have from the Divine power, proved by a constant series of miracles, that had hitherto attended them. But they distrust... [ Continue Reading ]
Kadesh — Kadesh — barnea, which some confound with Kadesh in the wilderness of Sin, into which they came not 'till the fortieth year after their coming out of Egypt, as appears from Numbers 33:37, whereas they were in this Kadesh in the second year, and before they received the sentence of their for... [ Continue Reading ]
They told him — In the audience of the people.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Amalekites in the south — Where we are to enter the land, and they who were so fierce against us that they came into the wilderness to fight with us, will, without doubt, oppose us when we come close by their land, the rather, to revenge themselves for their former loss. Therefore they mention t... [ Continue Reading ]
Caleb — Together with Joshua, as is manifest from Numbers 14:6, Numbers 14:30, but Caleb alone is here mentioned, possibly because he spake first and most, which he might better do, because he might be presumed to be more impartial than Joshua, who being Moses's minister might be thought to speak on... [ Continue Reading ]
The men — All of them, Joshua excepted. Stronger — Both in stature of body and numbers of people. Thus they question the power, and truth, and goodness of God, of all which they had such ample testimonies.... [ Continue Reading ]
Eateth up its inhabitants — Not so much by civil wars, for that was likely to make their conquest more easy; but rather by the unwholesomeness of the air and place, which they guessed from the many funerals, which, as some Hebrew writers, not without probability affirm, they observed in their travel... [ Continue Reading ]