Bible Verses About Holy Land: Twelve men sent to spy

ADONAI said to Moshe,

"Send men on your behalf to reconnoiter the land of Kena'an, which I am giving to the people of Isra'el. From each ancestral tribe send someone who is a leader in his tribe."

Moshe dispatched them from the Pa'ran Desert as ADONAI had ordered; all of them were leading men among the people of Isra'el.

Here are their names: from the tribe of Re'uven, Shamua the son of Zakur;

from the tribe of Shim'on, Shafat the son of Hori;

from the tribe of Y'hudah, Kalev the son of Y'funeh;

from the tribe of Yissakhar, Yig'al the son of Yosef;

from the tribe of Efrayim, Hoshea the son of Nun;

from the tribe of Binyamin, Palti the son of Rafu;

from the tribe of Z'vulun, Gadi'el the son of Sodi;

from the tribe of Yosef, that is, from the tribe of M'nasheh, Gadi the son of Susi;

from the tribe of Dan, 'Ammi'el the son of G'malli;

from the tribe of Asher, S'tur the son of Mikha'el;

from the tribe of Naftali, Nachbi the son of Vofsi; and

from the tribe of Gad, Ge'u'el the son of Makhi.

These are the names of the men Moshe sent out to reconnoiter the land. Moshe gave to Hoshea the son of Nun the name Y'hoshua.

Moshe sent them to reconnoiter the land of Kena'an, instructing them, "Go on up to the Negev and into the hills,

and see what the land is like. Notice the people living there, whether they are strong or weak, few or many;

and what kind of country they live in, whether it is good or bad; and what kind of cities they live in, open or fortified.

See whether the land is fertile or unproductive and whether there is wood in it or not. Finally, be bold enough to bring back some of the fruit of the land." When they left it was the season for the first grapes to ripen.

They went up and reconnoitered the land from the Tzin Desert to Rechov near the entrance to Hamat.

They went up into the Negev and arrived at Hevron; Achiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the 'Anakim, lived there. (Hevron was built seven years before Tzo'an in Egypt.)

They came to the Eshkol Valley; and there they cut off a branch bearing one cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two of them; they also took pomegranates and figs.

That place was called the Valley of Eshkol [cluster], because of the cluster which the people of Isra'el cut down there.

Forty days later, they returned from reconnoitering the land