TRV
Translation
King James Version
And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.
Complete Jewish Bible
They took some of the produce of the land and brought it down to us; they also brought back word to us -'The land ADONAI our God is giving to us is good.'
Berean Standard Bible
They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us word: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”
American Standard Version
And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which Jehovah our God giveth unto us.
World English Bible Messianic
They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, “It is a good land which the LORD our God gives to us.”
Geneva Bible (1599)
And tooke of the fruite of the land in their hands, and brought it vnto vs, and brought vs worde againe, and sayd, It is a good land, which the Lord our God doeth giue vs.
Young's Literal Translation
and they take with their hand of the fruit of the land, and bring down unto us, and bring us back word, and say, Good is the land which Jehovah our God is giving to us.
In the KJVVerse 4,918 of 31,102
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Commentary on Deuteronomy 1 verses 19–46
19 ¶ And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea.
20 And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us.
21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.
22 And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.
23 And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe:
24 And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.
25 And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.
26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:
27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.
29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;
31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.
32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,
33 Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.
34 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,
35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,
36 Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.
37 Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
40 But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
41 Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.
42 And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.
43 So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill.
44 And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.
45 And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.
46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.
Moses here makes a large rehearsal of the fatal turn which was given to their affairs by their own sins, and God's wrath, when, from the very borders of Canaan, the honour of conquering it, and the pleasure of possessing it, the whole generation was hurried back into the wilderness, and their carcases fell there. It was a memorable story; we read it Num. 13 and 14, but divers circumstances are found here which are not related there.
I. He reminds them of their march from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea (Deu 1:19), through that great and terrible wilderness. This he takes notice of, 1. To make them sensible of the great goodness of God to them, in guiding them through so great a wilderness, and protecting them from the mischiefs they were surrounded with in such a terrible wilderness. The remembrance of our dangers should make us thankful for our deliverances. 2. To aggravate the folly of those who, in their discontent, would have gone back to Egypt through the wilderness, though they had forfeited, and had no reason to expect, the divine guidance, in such a retrograde motion.
II. He shows them how fair they stood for Canaan at that time, Deu 1:20, Deu 1:21. He told them with triumph, the land is set before you, go up and possess it. He lets them see how near they were to a happy settlement when they put a bar in their own door, that their sin might appear the more exceedingly sinful. It will aggravate the eternal ruin of hypocrites that they were not far from the kingdom of God and yet came short, Mar 12:34.
III. He lays the blame of sending the spies upon them, which did not appear in Numbers, there it is said (Deu 13:1, Deu 13:2) that the Lord directed the sending of them, but here we find that the people first desired it, and God, in permitting it, gave them up to their counsels: You said, We will send men before us, Deu 1:22. Moses had given them God's word (Deu 1:20, Deu 1:21), but they could not find in their hearts to rely upon that: human policy goes further with them than divine wisdom, and they will needs light a candle to the sun. As if it were not enough that they were sure of a God before them, they must send men before them.
IV. He repeats the report which the spies brought of the goodness of the land which they were sent to survey, Deu 1:24, Deu 1:25. The blessings which God has promised are truly valuable and desirable, even the unbelievers themselves being judges: never any looked into the holy land, but they must own it a good land. Yet they represented the difficulties of conquering it as insuperable (Deu 1:28); as if it were in vain to think of attacking them either by battle, "for the people are taller than we," or by siege, "for the cities are walled up to heaven," an hyperbole which they made use of to serve their ill purpose, which was to dishearten the people, and perhaps they intended to reflect on the God of heaven himself, as if they were able to defy him, like the Babel-builders, the top of whose tower must reach to heaven, Gen 11:4. Those places only are walled up to heaven that are compassed with God's favour as with a shield.
V. He tells them what pains he took with them to encourage them, when their brethren had said so much to discourage them (Deu 1:29): Then I said unto you, Dread not. Moses suggested enough to have stilled the tumult, and to have kept them with their faces towards Canaan. He assured them that God was present with them, and president among them, and would certainly fight for them, Deu 1:30. And for proof of his power over their enemies he refers them to what they had seen done in Egypt, where their enemies had all possible advantages against them and yet were humbled and forced to yield, Deu 1:30. And for proof of God's goodwill to them, and the real kindness which he intended them, he refers them to what they had seen in the wilderness (Deu 1:31, Deu 1:33), through which they had been guided by the eye of divine wisdom in a pillar of cloud and fire (which guided both their motions and their rests), and had been carried in the arms of divine grace with as much care and tenderness as were ever shown to any child borne in the arms of a nursing father. And was there any room left to distrust this God? Or were they not the most ungrateful people in the world, who, after such sensible proofs of the divine goodness, hardened their hearts in the day of temptation? Moses had complained once that God had charged him to carry this people as a nursing father doth the sucking child (Num 11:12); but here he owns that it was God that so carried them, and perhaps this is alluded to (Act 13:18), where he is said to bear them, or to suffer their manners.
VI. He charges them with the sin which they were guilty of upon this occasion. Though those to whom he was now speaking were a new generation, yet he lays it upon them: You rebelled, and you murmured; for many of these were then in being, though under twenty years old, and perhaps were engaged in the riot; and the rest inherited their fathers' vices, and smarted for them. Observe what he lays to their charge. 1. Disobedience and rebellion against God's law: You would not go up, but rebelled, Deu 1:26. The rejecting of God's favours is really a rebelling against his authority. 2. Invidious reflections upon God's goodness. They basely suggested: Because the Lord hated us, he brought us out of Egypt, Deu 1:27. What could have been more absurd, more disingenuous, and more reproachful to God? 3. An unbelieving heart at the bottom of all this: You did not believe the Lord your God, Deu 1:32. All your disobedience to God's laws, and distrust of his power and goodness, flow from a disbelief of his word. A sad pass it has come to with us when the God of eternal truth cannot be believed.
VII. He repeats the sentence passed upon them for this sin, which now they had seen the execution of. 1. They were all condemned to die in the wilderness, and none of them must be suffered to enter Canaan except Caleb and Joshua, Deu 1:34-38. So long they must continue in their wanderings in the wilderness that most of them would drop off of course, and the youngest of them should be cut off. Thus they could not enter in because of unbelief. It was not the breach of any of the commands of the law that shut them out of Canaan, no, not the golden calf, but their disbelief of that promise which was typical of gospel grace, to signify that no sin will ruin us but unbelief, which is a sin against the remedy. 2. Moses himself afterwards fell under God's displeasure for a hasty word which they provoked him to speak: The Lord was angry with me for your sakes, Deu 1:37. Because all the old stock must go off, Moses himself must not stay behind. Their unbelief let death into the camp, and, having entered, even Moses falls within his commission. 3. Yet here is mercy mixed with wrath. (1.) That, though Moses might not bring them into Canaan, Joshua should (v. 38): Encourage him; for he would be discouraged from taking up a government which he saw Moses himself fall under the weight of; but let him be assured that he shall accomplish that for which he is raised up: He shall cause Israel to inherit it. Thus what the law could not do, in that it was weak, Jesus, our Joshua, does by bringing in the better hope. (2.) That, though this generation should not enter into Canaan, the next should, Deu 1:39. As they had been chosen for their fathers' sakes, so their children might justly have been rejected for their sakes. But mercy rejoiceth against judgement.
VIII. He reminds them of their foolish and fruitless attempt to get this sentence reversed when it was too late. 1. They tried it by their reformation in this particular; whereas they had refused to go up against the Canaanites, now they would go up, aye, that they would, in all haste, and they girded on their weapons of war for that purpose, Deu 1:41. Thus, when the door is shut, and the day of grace is over, there will be found those that stand without and knock. But this, which looked like a reformation, proved but a further rebellion. God, by Moses, prohibited the attempt (Deu 1:42): yet they went presumptuously up to the hill (Deu 1:43), acting now in contempt of the threatening, as before in contempt of the promise, as if they were governed by a spirit of contradiction; and it sped accordingly (Deu 1:44): they were chased and destroyed; and, by this defeat which they suffered when they provoked God to leave them, they were taught what success they might have had if they had kept themselves in his love. 2. They tried by their prayers and tears to get the sentence reversed: They returned and wept before the Lord, Deu 1:45. While they were fretting and quarrelling, it is said (Num 14:1): They wept that night; those were tears of rebellion against God, these were tears of repentance and humiliation before God. Note, Tears of discontent must be wept over again; the sorrow of the world worketh death, and is to be repented of; it is not so with godly sorrow, that will end in joy. But their weeping was all to no purpose. The Lord would not harken to your voice, because you would not harken to his; the decree had gone forth, and, like Esau, they found no place of repentance, though they sought it carefully with tears.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 19–46. Public domain.
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Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Deuteronomy 1:25 vividly captures a pivotal moment in Israel's wilderness journey, as Moses recounts the initial, overwhelmingly positive report from the spies sent into Canaan. This verse highlights the tangible evidence of the land's extraordinary bounty—its inherent "goodness"—and explicitly attributes this promised inheritance to the benevolent provision of "the LORD our God." It serves as a poignant reminder of God's unwavering faithfulness and the undeniable quality of His gifts, setting the stage for the tragic narrative of Israel's subsequent unbelief and rebellion despite such clear and compelling evidence.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Deuteronomy 1:25 employs several literary devices to enhance its impact and convey its profound message. Symbolism is prominently featured, with the "fruit of the land" serving as a powerful and concrete symbol of God's promise, the land's extraordinary abundance, and His unwavering faithfulness. This tangible evidence was intended to represent the spiritual reality of God's lavish provision. The verse also utilizes implicit Contrast, setting the fertile, "good land" against the barren, desolate wilderness the Israelites had endured for decades. More significantly, it explicitly sets the initial, overwhelmingly positive report against the subsequent, fear-mongering report of the ten spies (not detailed in this verse but immediately following in the narrative), which led to the nation's downfall. This contrast highlights the stark choice between faith and unbelief. Furthermore, Moses' recounting of this past event is a prime example of Recapitulation (or summary), where he retells a crucial historical incident to impress its lessons upon the new generation, emphasizing key details for pedagogical and exhortational purposes. The initial, enthusiastic declaration of the land's goodness also carries a subtle Irony, as this positive assessment, which should have spurred courageous faith, ultimately precedes a catastrophic failure of faith that cost the generation their inheritance.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Deuteronomy 1:25 stands as a profound testament to God's character as a benevolent Giver, whose promises are not only reliable and certain but also exceed human expectation in their goodness and abundance. The spies' report, powerfully confirmed by the physical evidence of the fruit, was an undeniable affirmation of God's faithfulness to His covenant and His desire to bless His people. Yet, this verse also serves as a poignant prelude to Israel's tragic failure of faith, illustrating that even when God's goodness and provision are explicitly and tangibly demonstrated, human fear, shortsightedness, and unbelief can lead to devastating consequences. It underscores the critical importance of responding to God's promises with trust and courageous obedience, rather than allowing daunting challenges or perceived obstacles to overshadow the certainty of His word and the inherent quality of His gifts. The "good land" was a tangible expression of God's desire to bless His people, a desire that remains constant and unwavering even when human hearts falter.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Deuteronomy 1:25 offers profound and timeless lessons for believers today. Just as the Israelites were presented with undeniable evidence of God's promised goodness and provision, we too are constantly surrounded by tangible proofs of His faithfulness and benevolent care in our lives. This verse challenges us to cultivate a spirit of profound gratitude and keen spiritual discernment, enabling us to recognize and appreciate the "good land" that God has already given us, whether it be material blessings, spiritual gifts, the promises of His Word, or the very presence of His Spirit. It calls us to confront our own tendencies towards fear, doubt, and unbelief, especially when faced with challenges that seem like formidable "giants" in the path of God's promises. By intentionally remembering God's past faithfulness and meditating on the inherent goodness of His character, we are encouraged to step forward in faith, trusting that His gifts are truly "good" and that His promises are absolutely trustworthy. Our response to God's demonstrated goodness should be one of confident obedience and courageous trust, rather than hesitation or paralyzing doubt, allowing us to fully enter into the abundant life and spiritual inheritance He has prepared for us.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why did Moses recount this positive report when the overall outcome was negative?
Answer: Moses recounted this initial positive report for several crucial and strategic reasons. Firstly, it served to underscore God's undeniable faithfulness and the inherent goodness of the land He promised. By highlighting that the spies themselves confirmed the land was "good," Moses emphasized that the subsequent failure to enter was entirely due to Israel's unbelief and rebellion, not any deficiency on God's part or in His gift. This absolved God of any blame. Secondly, it acted as a stark and sobering warning to the new generation. They needed to understand the tragic consequences of their parents' lack of faith, even when presented with clear and compelling evidence of God's bounty and power. This historical reminder was meant to encourage them to respond with faith and courageous obedience, thereby avoiding the same catastrophic mistakes as their predecessors and finally entering the "good land" that God had always intended for them. It highlighted the responsibility of human response to divine truth.
What was the significance of bringing back actual fruit?
Answer: The act of bringing back actual fruit from the land was profoundly significant and served multiple purposes. It provided tangible, sensory, and undeniable proof of Canaan's extraordinary fertility and abundance. In a culture where oral reports could be questioned or exaggerated, physical evidence spoke volumes and carried immense weight. The sheer size of the cluster of grapes, along with the pomegranates and figs (Numbers 13:23), served as a powerful visual aid, confirming that the land was indeed a "land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8). This physical evidence was specifically intended to inspire faith, confidence, and courage in God's promise, making the subsequent unbelief of the majority of the Israelites all the more inexcusable and tragic. It demonstrated that God's provision was not merely theoretical or distant but a tangible, abundant reality within reach.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Deuteronomy 1:25, with its depiction of a "good land which the LORD our God doth give us," finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the spiritual inheritance He provides for all who believe. While the physical land of Canaan was a tangible and temporal gift, it served as a powerful type and foreshadowing of the far greater spiritual blessings and the true "rest" that God offers His people through the New Covenant. Just as the fruit was tangible evidence of the land's goodness, Jesus Christ Himself is the ultimate and perfect "good gift" from God, the very embodiment of divine goodness, grace, and provision (John 3:16). He is the true "land" of spiritual abundance, where believers find rest from their labors and burdens (Matthew 11:28), forgiveness of sins, and eternal life in its fullest expression (John 10:10). The failure of the Israelites to enter the physical land due to unbelief serves as a solemn and enduring warning against neglecting the spiritual rest and eternal inheritance offered freely in Christ (Hebrews 4:1-11). Through His atoning sacrifice on the cross, Christ has decisively conquered the true "giants" of sin, death, and the law, opening the way for all who believe to enter into a spiritual "good land" that is eternal, incorruptible, and infinitely superior to any earthly inheritance, a heavenly country that is our true home (Hebrews 11:16). The Holy Spirit, given to believers, is the "firstfruits" of this glorious and complete inheritance, guaranteeing the fullness of what is yet to come in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:13-14).