Spies Sent into Canaan

13 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”^{(A) 3} So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them leading men among the Israelites.

¹⁷ Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country,^{(A) 18} and see what the land is like and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, ¹⁹ and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, ²⁰ and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now it was the season of the first ripe grapes.^(B)

²¹ So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. ²² They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron, and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)^{(C) 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.

⁶ The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. ⁷ After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers,^[a] you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers.^{(A) 8} And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us,^{(B) 9} and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us.^{(C) 10} Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?^{(D) 11} On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”^(E)

¹² The whole assembly kept silence and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the gentiles.^{(F) 13} After they finished speaking, James replied, “My brothers,^[b] listen to me.^{(G) 14} Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name. ¹⁵ This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written,