Spies View the Land

13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel. From each of their fathers’ tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” ³ So Moses sent spies from the Wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the Israelites.

¹⁷ Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the Negev (the South country); then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many,