Numbers 13:30-32

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Numbers 13:30 tn The construction is emphatic, using the cohortative with the infinitive absolute to strengthen it: עָלֹה נַעֲלֶה (ʿaloh naʿaleh, “let us go up”) with the sense of certainty and immediacy.
2. Numbers 13:30 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive brings the cohortative idea forward: “and let us possess it”; it may also be subordinated to form a purpose or result idea.
3. Numbers 13:30 tn Here again the confidence of Caleb is expressed with the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense: יָכוֹל נוּכַל (yakhol nukhal), “we are fully able” to do this. The verb יָכַל (yakhal) followed by the preposition lamed means “to prevail over, to conquer.”
4. Numbers 13:31 tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.
5. Numbers 13:32 tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.
6. Numbers 13:32 tn Heb “which we passed over in it”; the pronoun on the preposition serves as a resumptive pronoun for the relative, and need not be translated literally.
7. Numbers 13:32 tn The verb is the feminine singular participle from אָכַל (ʾakhal); it modifies the land as a “devouring land,” a bold figure for the difficulty of living in the place.
8. Numbers 13:32 sn The expression has been interpreted in a number of ways by commentators, such as that the land was infertile, that the Canaanites were cannibals, that it was a land filled with warlike dissensions, or that it denotes a land geared for battle. It may be that they intended the land to seem infertile and insecure.
9. Numbers 13:32 tn Heb “in its midst.”