Commentaires bibliques

Chapters 13, 14

The investigation of the land by the spies: their report, and its sequel

The narrative presents many serious difficulties which cannot be removed except by the recognition that it contains a fusion of the early traditions of J E with the later account of P. The two chapters should be studied as follows:

J E Numbers 13:17 b (from and said)—Num 13:21a (so they went up), Num 13:22–24, 26b ([and they went] to Kadesh &c.)—Num 13:31, 33. Numbers 14:1 (partly), Num 14:3, 4, 8, 9, 11–25, 31, Num 14:39b – Num 14:45.

P Numbers 13:1-17 a, Num 13:21b, 25, 26a, Num 13:32Numbers 14:1 (partly), Num 14:2, 5–7, 10, 26–30, 32–39a.

This separation of the traditions depends partly on the presence of characteristic words and expressions, but partly also on irreconcileable differences in the facts which each relate. In J E , the spies start from Kadesh; they search the southern border of Palestine round Hebron; they report that the land is fertile but invincible; Caleb alone encourages the people, and is allowed to enter Canaan. In P , the spies start from the Wilderness of Paran; they search the whole of Palestine; they report that the land is not fertile; both Joshua and Caleb encourage the people, and are allowed to enter Canaan.

1–24. The spies are sent out, and search the land.

2. a prince] The word is very characteristic of P . The spies were not the same princes as those who represented the tribes at the census (Numbers 1:5-15). Of the following 24 names, beside Joshua, Nun, Caleb and Jephunneh, a few are found in early times, e.g. Palti (1 Samuel 25:44), Ammiel (2 Samuel 9:4), Shaphat (1 Kings 19:16), Shammua (2 Samuel 5:14), Igal (2 Samuel 23:36); in the last two cases, however, the text is uncertain. Others appear to be late. It is probable that the list is artificial, and not based on historical tradition. See on Numbers 1:5.

6. Caleb the son of Jephunneh] See note on Numbers 14:24.

16. Joshua has not been hitherto mentioned in P . Exodus 17:9; Exodus 17:13; Exodus 24:13; Exodus 32:17; Exodus 33:11, Numbers 11:28 are all J E . Hoshea, as the name of the son of Nun, is found only in Numbers 13:8 and Deuteronomy 32:44 (in the latter probably a textual error for ‘Joshua’). ‘Since, according to P , the name of Yahweh [Jehovah] was not revealed until after Joshua’s birth (Exodus 6:3), a name containing Yeho = Yahweh could not have been given him at birth. P therefore attributes the name to Moses’ (Gray).

17. get you up this way by the South] go up now into the Negeb. The name Negeb, which denotes ‘dry,’ ‘parched,’ was applied to the waste country on the southern border of Palestine, between the cultivated land and the deserts. After the settlement in Canaan ‘the Negeb’ gained the secondary sense of ‘the south,’ just as ‘the Sea,’ acquired that of ‘the west’ (see on Numbers 3:23). The Negeb is described in G. A. Smith, Hist. Geogr. 278–286.

the mountains] A second description of the Negeb (cf. Numbers 14:40). In Deuteronomy 1:20 it is called ‘the hill-country of the Amorites.’

21. the wilderness of Zin] The geographical statements regarding the tracts south of Judah are vague. In Numbers 13:26 Paran and Kadesh are placed by the compiler in juxtaposition, but in Numbers 20:1 Zin and Kadesh. See prelim, note on ch. 20.

Rehob] Probably the same as Beth-rehob (Jdg 18:28) near the sources of the Jordan.

the entrance of Hamath] Hamath (a district mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions) lay to the north of Palestine; and the ‘entrance’ to it seems to have been a well-known pass, formed by a depression between Lebanon and Hermon. It was, according to P , a point on the northern border of Israel’s possessions in Canaan (Numbers 34:8).

22. the children of Anak] lit. ‘the sons of neck,’ a Heb. idiom for the long-necked people. The natives of the Negeb were very tall and lanky. It is very improbable that Anak was thought of as a proper name of an individual. In Deut. the expression is mostly ‘sons of Anakim’ (plural). The tradition of a race of giants would easily grow up if the natives, as a whole, were taller than the Israelites. Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai are probably the names of three clans.

Now Hebron &c.] The date of the first building of Zoan (Tanis) is unknown, but was earlier than 2000 b.c. Perhaps the reference is to the re-building of it, which took place at the beginning of the 19th dynasty, i.e. shortly before the Exodus.