DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR SATURDAY MARCH 6:
DAILY BIBLE READING
Caleb
Numbers 13 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
The Spies Go to Canaan
13 The Lord said to Moses, 2 "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan. I
will give this land to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the
twelve tribes."
3 So Moses obeyed the Lord's command and sent out the Israelite leaders
while the people were camped in the desert of Paran. 4 These are their
names:
from the tribe of Reuben-Shammua son of Zaccur;
5 from the tribe of Simeon-Shaphat son of Hori;
6 from the tribe of Judah-Caleb son of Jephunneh;
7 from the tribe of Issachar-Igal son of Joseph;
8 from the tribe of Ephraim-Hoshea[a] son of Nun;
9 from the tribe of Benjamin-Palti son of Raphu;
10 from the tribe of Zebulun-Gaddiel son of Sodi;
11 from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe from Joseph)-Gaddi son of Susi;
12 from the tribe of Dan-Ammiel son of Gemalli;
13 from the tribe of Asher-Sethur son of Michael;
14 from the tribe of Naphtali-Nahbi son of Vophsi;
15 from the tribe of Gad-Geuel son of Maki.
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to look at and study the land.
(Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by another name. Moses called him Joshua.)
17 When Moses was sending them out to explore Canaan, he said, "Go through
the Negev and then into the hill country. 18 See what the land looks like.
Learn about the people who live there. Are they strong or are they weak? Are
they few or are they many? 19 Learn about the land that they live in. Is it
good land or bad land? What kind of towns do they live in? Do the towns have
walls protecting them? Are the towns strongly defended? 20 And learn other
things about the land. Is the soil good for growing things, or is it poor
soil? Are there trees on the land? Try to bring back some of the fruit from
that land." (This was during the time when the first grapes should be ripe.)
21 So they went to explore the country. They explored the area from the
desert of Zin to Rehob and Lebo Hamath. 22 They entered the country through
the Negev and went to Hebron. (The town of Hebron was built seven years
before the town of Zoan in Egypt.) Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai lived there.
These men were descendants of Anak. 23 Then the men went to Eshcol Valley.
There they cut off a branch from a grapevine that had a bunch of grapes on
it. They put that branch on a pole, and two men carried it between them.
They also carried some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place is called the
Eshcol[b] Valley, because there the men of Israel cut off the bunch of
grapes.
25 The men explored that country for 40 days, and then they went back to the
camp. 26 The Israelites were camped near Kadesh, in the desert of Paran. The
men went to Moses and Aaron and all the Israelites. They told Moses, Aaron,
and all the people what they saw and showed them the fruit from the land. 27
The men told Moses, "We went to the land where you sent us. It is a land
filled with many good things[c]! Here is some of the fruit that grows there.
28 But the people living there are very powerful. The cities are very large
and strongly defended. We even saw some Anakites there. 29 The Amalekites
live in the Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill
country. The Canaanites live near the sea and by the Jordan River."
30 Caleb told the people near Moses to be quiet. Then Caleb said, "We should
go up and take that land for ourselves. We can easily take that land."
31 But the men who had gone with him said, "We cannot fight those people!
They are much stronger than we are." 32 So those men gave a report that
discouraged the people. They said, "The land we saw is full of strong
people. They are strong enough to easily defeat anyone who goes there. 33 We
saw the giant Nephilim people there! (The descendants of Anak come from the
Nephilim.) We felt like little grasshoppers. Yes, we were like grasshoppers
to them!"
Footnotes:
Numbers 13:8 Hoshea Or "Joshua."
Numbers 13:24 Eshcol This name is like the Hebrew word meaning "a bunch of
grapes."
Numbers 13:27 land . things Literally, "land flowing with milk and honey."
Also in 14:8.
