| Scripture |
Expanded Comments |
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| 1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, |
And the LORD – The request of the people that the land be spied and reported on before its conquest was begun was acceded to by Moses. R4045:3
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| 2 Send thou men, that they may search out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Ye shall send a man of every tribe of his fathers, each a prince among them. |
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| 3 And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran: according to the commandment of Jehovah, all of them heads of the children of Israel. |
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| 4 And these are their names: for the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; |
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| 5 for the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; |
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| 6 for the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; |
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| 7 for the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; |
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| 8 for the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; |
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| 9 for the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; |
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| 10 for the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; |
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| 11 for the tribe of Joseph, for the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; |
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| 12 for the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; |
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| 13 for the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; |
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| 14 for the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; |
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| 15 for the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. |
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| 16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to search out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Jehoshua. |
Jehoshua – Je: Jehovah, Oshea: Salvation; hence, Jehovah's salvation, shortened to Joshua (Greek: Jesus). R5335:3, R4060:3
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| 17 And Moses sent them to search out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up this way by the south and go up into the hill-country, |
The land of Canaan – Typifying possession of the blessings promised by the Lord. R5314:1,4
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| 18 and ye shall see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell in it, whether they are strong or weak, few or many; |
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| 19 and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds; |
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| 20 and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there are trees in it, or not. And take courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first grapes. |
The time – July, apparently one or two months were spent on the journey. R5313:3
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| 21 And they went up, and searched out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, where one comes towards Hamath. |
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| 22 And they went up by the south, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. |
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| 23 And they came as far as the valley of Eshcol, and cut down thence a branch with one bunch of grapes, and they bore it between two upon a pole; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. |
Cluster of grapes – Many Christians give an unsatisfactory sample of the fruits of the spirit, hindering the outflow of the Lord's blessings. R4046:4
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| 24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the grapes which the children of Israel had cut down there. |
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| 25 And they returned from searching out the land after forty days. |
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| 26 And they came, and went to Moses and to Aaron, and to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to the whole assembly; and shewed them the fruit of the land. |
Kadesh – The place from which the spies were sent out. B48
A delightful place, well-watered, sharp contrast to Paran. R5313:3
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| 27 And they told him, and said, We came to the land to which thou didst send us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. |
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| 28 Only, the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, very great; moreover we saw the children of Anak there. |
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| 29 Amalek dwells in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill-country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the side of the Jordan. |
The Amalekites – The enemies of the land represent the weaknesses of the flesh and the oppositions of the Christian's fallen nature. R5314:2
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| 30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up boldly and possess it, for we are well able to do it. |
We are well able – Faith, though not minimizing the difficulties, counts on God. R4046:5
To the eye of faith all things are possible; to the eye of unbelief the conquest of the flesh is impossible. R5314:2
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| 31 But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. |
But the men – The ten spies, representing the Great Company. R4046:4
We be not able – Through timidity and lack of faith they murmured against going up. R5388:1
Unbelief never goes beyond the difficulties, the cities, the walls, the giants. R4046:4*
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| 32 And they brought to the children of Israel an evil report of the land which they had searched out, saying, The land, which we have passed through to search it out, is a land that eateth up its inhabitants; and all the people that we have seen in it are men of great stature; |
Evil report – Presenting the matter from the standpoint of its difficulties and forgetting the divine providences. R5313:6
That eateth up – Perhaps by pestilence or local warfare. R3063:6
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| 33 and there have we seen giants--the sons of Anak are of the giants--and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were also in their sight. |
We saw the giants – Nephilim. "There were giants in the earth." (Gen. 6:4) This was a false report. E104; R777:4
Probably some of the same families afterward represented by Goliath. R5313:6
Giants of opposition and despair. R4046:6
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