Deuteronomy 1:19-26

Living Bible

^19-21 “Then we left Mount Horeb and traveled through the great and terrible desert, finally arriving among the Amorite hills to which the Lord our God had directed us. We were then at Kadesh-barnea on the border of the Promised Land^[a] and I said to the people, ‘The Lord God has given us this land. Go and possess it as he told us to. Don’t be afraid! Don’t even doubt!’

²² “But they replied, ‘First let’s send out spies to discover the best route of entry, and to decide which cities we should capture first.’

²³ “This seemed like a good idea, so I chose twelve spies, one from each tribe. ^24-25 They crossed into the hills and came to the valley of Eshcol, and returned with samples of the local fruit. One look was enough to convince us that it was indeed a good land the Lord our God had given us. ²⁶ But the people refused to go in and rebelled against the Lord’s command.