⁹ When they went up to the Wadi Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the hearts of the Israelites from going into the land that the Lord had given them.

²⁴ They set out and went up into the hill country, and when they reached the Wadi Eshcol they spied it out^{(A) 25} and gathered some of the land’s produce, which they brought down to us. They brought back a report to us and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’^(B)

²⁶ “But you were unwilling to go up. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God;^{(C) 27} you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘It is because the Lord hates us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us.^{(D) 28} Where are we headed? Our kindred have made our hearts melt by reporting, “The people are stronger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified up to heaven! We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!” ’^(E)

²³ And they came to the Wadi Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ That place was called the Wadi Eshcol^[a] because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there.

The Report of the Spies

²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. ²⁶ And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.^{(A) 27} And they reported to him and said, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.^{(B) 28} Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.^{(C) 29} The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”^(D)

³⁰ But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”^{(E) 31} Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.”^{(F) 32} So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great size.^{(G) 33} There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim), and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”^(H)

The People Rebel

14 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. ² And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!^{(I) 3} Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴ So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt.”

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites.^{(J) 6} And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land.^{(K) 8} If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.^{(L) 9} Only, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”^{(M) 10} But the whole congregation threatened to stone them.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.^(N)