Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 13:32
And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, [is] a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it [are] men of a great stature.
32. that eateth up the inhabitants thereof ] It is so unfertile that its inhabitants have not enough to live upon. Some of the spies are represented as contradicting the statement of the others in Num 13:27. The latter dates from a time before the fall of the Southern Kingdom, when the land was rich and prosperous, while the present passage reflects the state of Judaea as it was known to the priestly writer in the period which followed the Babylonian conquest. See Eze 36:8; Eze 36:11; Eze 36:13 f., 29 f., Hag 1:6; Hag 2:19.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A land that eateth up … – i. e. it is a land which from its position is exposed to incessant attacks from one quarter and another, and so its occupants must be always armed and watchful.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Num 13:32-33
They brought up an evil report.
The report of the spies
I. Gods promises will always bear investigation. It is true that none of us has entered heaven; but Jesus, who has gone on in advance to take possession of it in His peoples name, has sent back an Eshcol cluster of its vintage, that we may know something of what we should expect. He has given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. The believer already has everlasting life; for the regeneration which he has here experienced needs but to be expanded and elevated and sublimated, to become the life of heaven. It is a confirmation of Jehovahs word to him; it is the seal of God Himself to the truthfulness of His promise that he shall yet enter into heavens own rest.
II. There are Anakim to be encountered in the conquest of every promised land. Christ has said, If any man will come after Me, &c., and has urged us to count the cost before we commence to raise our tower. So He would prepare us for self-denial, hardship, and long-continued struggle; but we must not suppose that in all this the gospel is an exception to the general law. No Canaan of success, in any pursuit, can be gained save by the conquest of the Anakim. He who would rise to a position of eminence in the department of literature, for example, must learn to scorn delights, and live laborious days. He must deny himself many pleasures in which others allow themselves to indulge, and must keep himself, in a sense, secluded from the world, living in his library and at his desk. The man of business who would climb the steep that leads to wealth, must pursue a similar course. He cannot leave his place; he keeps himself chained to the oar; he knows that nothing will avail but work–hard and continuous work; for so only can he conquer those influences that stand in the way of his attainment of his object. It is the same with the artist; and, on a lower platform, with the athlete. All of them have to go into training; and, in every pursuit, a campaign, with its perils and fatigues, comes before a victory. We cannot complain, there-tore, if the same law holds in the spiritual life. The giants with whom we have to contend are mainly in ourselves, in the shape of evil principles and sins that most easily beset us; and it is only through self-conquest that we can pass to any external victory. We cannot vault by one spasmodic leap up to the height of holiness, any more than the Israelites could all at once obtain possession of the Land of Promise. By little and little it has to be done. It needs prayer, and watchfulness, and constancy; and if we decline to enter upon the conflict, we shall fall short of the inheritance.
III. The true believer is always able to conquer his spiritual adversaries with the help of God. It is not a question of feebleness, but of faith. Whether the work we set before us be our own sanctification, or the evangelisation of the city, or the conversion of the world, the principle is still the same. We can do all things through Christ strengthening us; and if we attempt great things, trusting in Him, we may expect to do great things, not otherwise.
IV. There is a point beyond which it is no longer possible to repair the follies of the past. They who will not when they may, shall not when they will. You see this in every department and pursuit of life. Up to a certain limit it seems to be in a mans power, if he choose, to make up for the past; but beyond that limit it is no longer possible, whether he choose or not. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The spies
I. In the first place, the ungodly world are not to be excused for that which must, nevertheless, be admitted to be a very natural matter, namely, that instead of investigating religion for themselves, they usually trust to the representation of others.
1. The worldly man looks at a Christian to see whether his religion be joyful. By this, says he, shall I know whether there is that in religion which will make a man glad. If I see the professor of it with a joyous countenance, then I will believe it to be a good thing. But hark, sir! hast thou any right to put it to that test? Is not God to be counted true, even before we have proved Him?
2. Again, you say you will test the holiness of Christs religion by the holiness of Christs people. You have no right, I reply, to put the question to any such test as that. The proper test that you ought to use is to try it yourselves–to taste and see that the Lord is good. By tasting and seeing you will prove His goodness, and by the same process you must prove the holiness of His gospel. It will be in vain for you to say at the day of judgment, Such and such a man was inconsistent, therefore I despised religion. Your excuse will then be discovered to be idle, for you shall have to confess that in other respects you did not take another mans opinion. In business, in the cares of this life, you were independent enough; in your political opinions you did not pin your faith to any mans coat; and, therefore, it shall be said of you at last, you had enough independence of mind to steer your own course, even against the example of others, in business, in politics, and such like things; you certainly had enough of mental vigour, if you had chosen to have done so, to have stood out against the inconsistency of professors, and to have searched for yourselves.
II. With that, by way of guard, I shall now bring forth the bad spies. I wish that the men mentioned in the text had been the only spies who have brought an evil report; it would have been a great mercy if the plague that killed them had killed all the rest of the same sort. Remember, these spies are to be judged, not by what they say, but by what they do; for to a worldling words are nothing–acts are everything. The reports that we bring of our religion are not the reports of the pulpit, not the reports that we utter with our lips, but the report of our daffy life, speaking in our own houses, and the every-day business of life.
1. Welt, first, I produce a man who brings up an evil report of the land, and you will see at once that he does so, for he is a dull and heavy spirit. If he preaches he takes this text Through much tribulation we must inherit the kingdom. Somehow or other he never mentions Gods people without calling them Gods tried children. As for joy in the Lord, he looks upon it with suspicion. Lord, what a wretched land is this! is the very height of poetry to him. He is always in the valley where the mists are hovering; he never climbs the mountain brow, to stand above the tempests of this life. He was gloomy before he made a profession of religion–since then he has become more gloomy still.
2. But there is another class of professors who bring up a bad report of the land. And this I am afraid will affect us all; in some measure we must all plead guilty to it. The Christian man, although he endeavours uniformly to walk according to the law of Christ, finds still another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and consequently there are times when his witness is not consistent. Sometimes this witness is, The gospel is holy, for he is holy himself. But, alas! with the very best of men there are times when our witness contradicts our faith. When you see an angry Christian, and when you meet with a Christian who is proud, when you catch a Christian overtaken in a fault, as you may sometimes do, then his testimony is not consistent. He contradicts then what he has at other times declared by his acts.
III. Thus I have brought forth the evil spies who bring up a bad report; and now we have some good spies too. But we will let them speak. Come, Joshua and Caleb, we want your testimony; though you are dead and gone you have left: children behind you; and they, still grieved as you were at the evil report, rend their clothes, but they boldly stand to it that the land they have passed through is an exceeding good land. One of the best spies I have ever met with is an aged Christian. I remember to have heard him stand up and tell what he thought of religion. He was a blind old man, who for twenty years had not seen the light of the sun. His grey locks hung from his brow and floated over his shoulders. He stood up at the table of the Lord, and thus addressed us:–Brethren and sisters, I shall soon be taken from you; in a few more months I shall gather up my feet upon my bed, and sleep with my fathers. I have not the tongue of the learned, nor the mind of the eloquent, but I desire, before I go, to bear one public testimony to God. Fifty and six years have I served Him, and I have never found Him once unfaithful. I can say, Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and not one good thing hath failed of all the Lord God has promised.
IV. And now I want to press with all my might upon every professing Christian here the great necessity of bringing out a uniformly good testimony concerning religion. One of Napoleons officers loved him so well that when a cannonball was likely to smite the emperor he threw himself in the way, in order that he might die as a sacrifice for his master. Oh, Christian, you would do the same, I think. If Christ were here you would run between Him and insult–yea, between Him and death. Well, then, I am sure you would not wantonly expose Christ; bug remember, every unguarded word you use, every inconsistent act, puts a slur on Christ. The world, you know, does not find fault with you–they lay it all to your Master. If you make a slip to-morrow, they will not say, That is John Smiths human nature; they will say, That is John Smiths religion. They know better, but they will be sure to say it. Do not allow Christ to bear the blame–do not suffer His escutcheon to be tarnished–do not permit His banner to be trampled in the dust. Then there is another consideration. You must remember, if you do wrong, the world will be quite sure to notice you. They never think of looking at the virtues of holy men; all the courage of martyrs, and all the fidelity of confessors, and all the holiness of saints, but our iniquities are ever before them. Please to recollect that wherever you are, as a Christian, the eyes of the world are upon you; the Argus eyes of an evil generation follow you everywhere. If a Church is blind the world is not. And remember, too, that the world always wears magnifying glasses to look at Christians faults. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The evil reporters
1. In these wicked reporters see how Moses, that worthy governor, was deceived, for thinking there had been a good choice made of faithful men, the greater part was naught, even ten of the twelve that were sent. So may good men be abused when they mean well, and must not be censured for that which falleth out against their wills. Again, so is the proverb verified All is not gold that glittereth. The Lord is to be prayed unto to direct our choices; for weak is the wisdom of man, unless the wisdom of our all-seeing God go before and direct.
2. In that they confess it was land that flowed with milk and honey, observe the rich blessings God bestoweth upon men, and make such use in your own particular as he did that said, O Lord, thou givest to me all things fat and fair, I give to Thee all things lean and foul. Again, since the country was so good, and the inhabitants so wicked, let it make you remember the religious houses, planted most usually in places that flowed with milk and honey, and yet the possessors so idolatrous, and every way evil, as the world now taketh notice they were. Happy men are they that consider the Lords superabounding goodness to them, and make it an argument to press them daily to thankfulness, love, and all obedience to Him both in soul and body.
3. Note the manner of their praising of the land. It is with a but; surely say they, it floweth with milk and honey; but, but what? But the people be too strong, and we are not able to go up to possess it. Thus do slanderers ever set out their praises. Such an one is a good man, but. Such a woman is a good woman and a good neighbour, but. The preacher to-day made a good sermon, but. No man hath a better servant, but. So ever with one but or other they abate their praise, and sting the party or matter praised in the minds of them they speak unto. The Lord of lords and Judge of judges well seeth this their dealing, yea, the world noteth it, and even they, to whom they, howsoever they hold their peace, secretly in their hearts abhor such smoothing calumniation. The end of it with God may appear by this example as fearful a one as may be read in any history. Which you may see was this, that six hundred thousand of them died in the wilderness, and never entered into the Land of Promise, and the infamy of these butting reporters abide chronicled to this day in the Book of God, the chronicle to be feared above all chronicles. In county and country, with great and small, these buts towards our brethren and good matters are used. God in mercy work the remove of them. (Bp. Babington.)
Difficulties
I. There is the Anak speculative. He is bred by much of the scientific tendency of the time. Men make everything of law, and forget a personal God.
1. While science has revealed law, it has also revealed marvellous manipulation of law to special uses, viz., telegraph, telephone, phonograph. Now, if man can so use law to special ends without breaking law, cannot God use His own laws, so that they shall come to focus in blessing on my head, and without breaking them?
2. The most capacious mind is most attentive to details. The infinite mind does not find details burdensome. Therefore God can care for me, and help me.
3. The revelation of the Divine Fatherhood; and fatherhood always means care, love, help, particular attention.
II. There is the Anak experimental. He takes such shapes as these–I cannot believe, it is hard to serve God; I cannot make myself love; I have no assurance, &c., &c. If we will only confront this son of Anak by a determined doing of precisely what Christ tells us, we shall soon discover that he cannot stand before us and prevent entrance into the Canaan of forgiveness and of peace.
III. There is the Anak volitional. And he is the main Anak that really prevents us. Two sailors going to their boat past midnight, and getting into it that they might row themselves to their ship yonder, with brains fuddled by a spree on shore, laid hold of the oars and tugged and tugged; and when the morning broke found they had not moved an inch. And with clearer brains and in the advancing light they discovered the reason–they had not lifted the anchor. Ah, how often an unlifted anchor of some known sin is the real Anak keeping back and holding back! (W. Hoyt, D. D.)
Difficulties determine character
Character, like Achilles in disguise at the court of Lycomedes, does not disclose itself till the trumpet blast is sounded, and there is a rush for armour as besuits it.
I. Intellectual. Schoolboy finds pathway beset with difficulties. They grow, rather than diminish. Nothing will tell its own mystery: how far we shall proceed will depend upon an unconquerable will and intensest application. As answers, we have illiteracy, scholarship, genius.
II. Social Problems of life and government complex and infinite. A few lead; the multitude follow.
III. Industrial. We seek and find our own work. Just what is in us will come out.
IV. Religious. Here, too, difficulties will not remove themselves. Just how we approach them will reveal the infidel, athiest, or Christian. Conclusion: Life, in all its departments, is of one piece and like texture; and its difficulties are for trial, discipline, and mastery. (L. O. Thompson.)
The report of the spies; or, The difference between truth and facts
This was a mean report, it was hardly a report at all–so nearly may a man come to speak the truth, and yet not to be truthful, so wide is the difference between fact and truth. Many a book is true that is written under the name of fiction; many a book is untrue that lays claim only to the dry arguments of statistics and schedules. Truth is subtle; it is a thing of atmosphere, perspective, unnameable environment, spiritual influence. Not a word of what the truth says may have occurred in what is known as literal fact, because it is too large a thing ever to be encompassed within the boundaries of any individual experience. The fact relates to an individuality; the truth relates to a race. A fact is an incident which occurred; a truth is a gospel which is occurring throughout all the ages of time. The men, therefore, who reported about walled cities, and tall inhabitants, and mountain refuges, and fortresses by the sea, confined themselves to simply material considerations; they overlooked the fact that the fortress might be stronger than the soldier, that the people had nothing but figure, and weight, and bulk, and were destitute of the true spirit which alone is a guarantee of sovereignty of character and conquest of arms. But this is occurring every day. Again and again we come upon terms which might have been written this very year. We are all men of the same class, with an exceptional instance here and there; we look at walls, we receive despatches about the stature of the people and the number of their fortresses, and draw very terrible conclusions concerning material resources, forgetting in our eloquent despatches the only thing worth telling, namely, that if we were sent by Providence and are inspired by the Living God and have a true cause and are intent to fight with nobler weapons than gun and sword, the mountains themselves shall melt whilst we look upon them, and they who inhabit the fortresses shall sleep to rise no more. This is what we must do in life–in all life–educational, commercial, religious. We have nothing to do with outsides and appearances, and with resources that can be totalled in so many arithmetical figures; we have to ascertain, first, Did God send us? and secondly, if He sent us, to feel that no man can drive us back. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The testimony of a Christian life
Now lads, said the late Duncan Mathieson, the Scottish Evangelist, to a lot of boys who had been converted at his meetings, the people here are not in the habit of reading their Bible to learn what God says to them, but Ill tell you what theyll read. Theyll read your lives and ways very carefully to see if you are really what you profess to be. And mind you this, if they find your lives to be inconsistent with your profession, the devil will give them this for an excuse in rejecting Christ. Very true indeed are these words. Would that we could lay them more constantly to heart t The life of the professing Christian is the only book of evidences that many people ever read in reference to Christianity. The Christian professors life is thus the worlds Bible. When there are inconsistencies and flaws in it, then the world makes these a plea against religion. Let us remember that the worlds eyes are upon us. Let us keep our book of evidences clear and pure.
Reason better than imagination
I think it was Henry Ward Beecher who used to relate how when he was a boy there was no stove in the church which he then attended. Some of the worshippers began to think that they might be better with a fire, but they were opposed by others, who thought that a stove should have no place in the house of the Lord, indeed that they could not get to heaven from a church with a stove in it but, despite their fierce opposition, the elders by a narrow majority ultimately decided to have it, and accordingly it was procured and placed in the church. On the following Sunday the doubters mustered strong. Some complained of being very warm, and others declared they were nearly stifled, while a few boldly pronounced that the stove had no right to be there at all, and together they made a rush for the offending piece of furniture, to turn it out of the building, when lo, to their surprise, they found it was empty. These people were very bad reasoners, but had a great imaginative faculty.
Folly of exaggerating the enemys strength
It is a bad plan to exaggerate the enemys strength; to do so is to increase it. Our English warriors have owed many a victory on land and sea to the confidence with which they entered the fight. Francis Drake was playing bowls on the Hoe at Plymouth when information was brought him of the appearance of the terrible Armada. Some were for hurrying away at once; but the great sailor insisted on finishing the game, gaily assuring his comrades: There will be plenty of time to beat the Spaniards. It is with something of the same dauntless spirit that we should enter upon our holy war. There was real wisdom in the lads answer when asked what he thought of the first two chapters of Job. He had but just learned to read, and had set himself with firm resolve to read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation. He had now come to Job, and his friend asked, Well, what do you think of it? Well, replied the child, I dont like that Satan a bit; and when I get to learn to write and when I have to write Satan, I will always write Satan with a small s. Alas! too many of us would have to write the word in large capitals if our writing expressed our feelings. Fear and timidity magnify the foe. Let us learn a holier and braver lesson. (G. Howard James.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 32. Men of a great stature] anshey middoth, men of measures – two men’s height; i. e., exceedingly tall men.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They brought up, Heb. brought forth, to wit, out of their mouths; they uttered a reproach, or reproachful words.
Of the land i.e. against it, or concerning the land. It is the genitive case of the object, as Mat 10:1; 14:1.
Eateth up the inhabitants; not so much by civil wars, as most think, for that was likely to make their conquest more easy; nor by the barrenness of the soil, which consumed the people with the excessive pains it required to make it fruitful, as others think, for they confessed the excellency of the land, Num 13:27; but rather by the unwholesomeness of the air and place, which they guessed from the many funerals which, as some Hebrew writers, not without probability, affirm, they observed in their travels through it; though that came to pass from another cause, even from the singular providence of God, which, to facilitate the Israelites conquest, cut off vast numbers of the Canaanites, either by a plague, or by the hornet sent before them, as is expressed Jos 24:12, or some other way.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
32. a land that eateth up theinhabitantsthat is, an unhealthy climate and country. Jewishwriters say that in the course of their travels they saw a great manyfunerals, vast numbers of the Canaanites being cut off at that time,in the providence of God, by a plague or the hornet (Jos24:12).
men of a great statureThiswas evidently a false and exaggerated report, representing, fromtimidity or malicious artifice, what was true of a few as descriptiveof the people generally.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel,…. Before, they gave a good report of the land itself, as a very fruitful one, answering to their expectations and wishes; but now they change their language, and give a different account of it; which shows their want of integrity, and to what length an opposition carried them, to say things contrary to their real sentiments, and to what they themselves had said before:
saying, the land through which we have gone to search it, [is] a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; the meaning seems to be, that it was so barren and unfruitful that it did not produce food sufficient for the inhabitants of it, who were ready to starve, and many did starve through want, and so was the reverse of what they had before said; for which reason, Gussetius o thinks the sense is, that the land was the food and nourishment of its inhabitants, and that there was such plenty in it that it wanted not any foreign assistance in any respect whatever. Some think that it was continually embroiled in civil wars, in which they destroyed one another; but then this was no argument against, but for their going up against them, since through the divisions among themselves they might reasonably hope the better to succeed; or it ate them up with diseases, as the Targum of Jonathan adds, and so they would represent it, though a fruitful land, yet a very unhealthful one, in which the natives could not live, and much less strangers; and so Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom interpret it of the badness of the air of the country, as being very unwholesome and pernicious. Jarchi represents them as saying, that wherever they came they saw them burying their dead, as if there was a plague among them; and be it so that there was, which is not unlikely, since the Lord promised to send hornets before them, which some interpret of diseases sent, Ex 23:28; and which was in their favour, since hereby the number of their enemies would be lessened, and they would be weakened, and in a bad condition to oppose them:
and all the people that we saw in it [are] men of a great stature; or men of measures p, of a large measure, above the common measure of men; but it may be justly questioned whether they spoke truth; for though they might see some that exceeded in height men in common, yet it is not credible that all they saw were of such a size; since they were not only at Hebron and saw the giants there who were such, but they went through the land, as in the preceding clause, and all they met with cannot be supposed to be of such a measure.
o Ebr. Comment. p. 40. p “viri mensurarum”, Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Thus they spread an evil report of the land among the Israelites, by exaggerating the difficulties of the conquest in their unbelieving despair, and describing Canaan as a land which “ ate up its inhabitants.” Their meaning certainly was not “that the wretched inhabitants were worn out by the laborious task of cultivating it, or that the land was pestilential on account of the inclemency of the weather, or that the cultivation of the land was difficult, and attended with many evils,” as Calvin maintains. Their only wish was to lay stress upon the difficulties and dangers connected with the conquest and maintenance of the land, on account of the tribes inhabiting and surrounding it: the land was an apple of discord, because of its fruitfulness and situation; and as the different nations strove for its possession, its inhabitants wasted away ( Cler., Ros., O. v. Gerlach). The people, they added, are , “ men of measures, ” i.e., of tall stature (cf. Isa 45:14), “ and there we saw the Nephilim, i.e., primeval tyrants (see at Gen 6:4), Anak’s sons, giants of Nephilim, and we seemed to ourselves and to them as small as grasshoppers.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
32. But the men that went up with him said. We here see, as in a mirror, how impiety gradually gathers audaciousness in evil. At the outset, the authors of the rebellion were ambiguous in their expressions, and contented themselves with obscure insinuations; they now throw aside all shame, and openly and acrimoniously oppose the address of Caleb, which was certainly nothing less than casting discredit on God’s words, and setting at naught His power. God had promised to give the land to the Israelites; they deny that He will do so. He had afforded them many proofs that nothing is difficult to Him: they deny that His aid will suffice against the forces of their enemies. Moreover, they at length break out into such impudence, that in their falsehood they contradict themselves. They had confessed that the land was rich; they now declare that it consumes or devours its inhabitants, which is entirely the reverse. For this is equivalent to saying, that the wretched men, who cultivated it, wore themselves out with their assiduous labors; or, at ally rate, that it was pestilential from the inclemency of its climate; either of which statements was utterly false. The mode in which some understand it, viz., that the giants (52) in their violence committed indiscriminate slaughter, is without foundation; for this evil was by no means to be feared by the people, after the extermination of the inhabitants. I do not doubt, then, but that it means that the cultivation of the land was difficult, and full of much inconvenience.
At the end of the last verse, where it is said, “as grasshoppers,” etc., I think the words are inverted, and ought to be thus connected; “As grasshoppers are despised in our eyes, so we were looked down upon by these giants on account of our lowness of stature.”
(52) Corn. a Lapide has the following note on verse 33; “ נפלים, nephilim, i.e., giants, who are called nephilim, that is, falling, because they were so tall, that those who saw them fell from terror, or rather falling, i.e., making to fall, (the Kal being put for the Hiphil,) laying prostrate and slaying other men in all directions, for these giants were savage men and truculent tyrants.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(32) A land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.Some understand by this phrase a land of scarcity, unable to support its inhabitants; others understand it as denoting an unhealthy land, in which sense it appears to be still used in the East. (See Roberts Oriental Illustrations, p. 101, 8vo, 1844.) It seems more probable, however, that the allusion is to the strife and discord which prevailed amongst the various tribes who contended for its possession. (Comp. Lev. 26:38.)
Men of great stature.Literally, men of measures (comp. Isa. 45:14), where the word middah, measure, occurs in the singular number, men of stature. Such persons did undoubtedly exist in the land of Canaan, but there is no evidence that the inhabitants generally were of extraordinary size.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
32. A land that eateth up the inhabitants This cannot mean that the land was sterile and the inhabitants dying of famine. It may refer to some pestilence whose ravages were noted by the spies. Calvin “thinks that the wretched inhabitants were worn out by the laborious task of cultivating it.” But it is more reasonable to suppose that from the central position of Canaan among the powerful Oriental empires it was an apple of discord, and that the people were constantly embroiled in wasting wars to maintain their independence. Hence Israel would be decimated in conquering it, and diminished, or eaten up, in defending it. See Eze 36:13-15, for a confirmation of this exegesis. “It is remarkable how rapidly unbelief grows when it has once found expression. At first it was only a suggestion.
Num 13:28-29. Then, when Caleb had tried to still the fears to which it had given rise, it became an assertion. Num 13:31. Lastly, it assumed the form of ‘an evil report of the land’ itself, as of one ‘that eateth up the inhabitants thereof,’ (Num 13:32,) where the people are consumed by pestilence or exterminated by constant warfare of fierce races, against whom it were hopeless to attempt contending. That, if such were the views and feelings of the great majority of their best and most trusted men, the people should have risen in rebellion, need not, perhaps, surprise us. But it indicated how thoroughly unprepared Israel was for the possession of the land. Viewed from the human stand-point, the history of the Bible is one of constant disappointments.” Dr. Edersheim.
Men of a great stature Hebrew, men of measures; that is, of tall stature. See the dimensions of King Og’s bedstead, Deu 3:11.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 13:32. And they brought up an evil report of the land The evil report consisted of the particulars immediately following: they said, that it was a land which ate up the inhabitants thereof; an expression which cannot mean, as some have supposed, that the country was unfertile, and apt to eat up and consume its inhabitants by famine; for they had before confessed it to be a plentiful land, flowing with milk and honey. The two things, for which they seem desirous to bring an evil report upon the land, are, the number and strength of the inhabitants; and as their extraordinary strength and size are specified in the latter part of this verse, and in the 33rd, so I apprehend their number is expressed in the second clause, a land which eateth up the inhabitants thereof. “A land eating up, or rather meat for, its own inhabitants; that is, sufficient only for the food and support of the numerous and large inhabitants which throng it.” A learned foreigner Mr. C. A. Heuman, paraphrases these difficult words thus: “The number of the inhabitants so great, that they eat up all the land in such a manner, that we shall have nothing to subsist upon; much less should we be able to drive them out; for they are giants.” This appears the most rational interpretation; for if we are to understand the phrase of the land’s eating up its inhabitants in that sense in which, doubtless, it is sometimes used in Scripture, (Lev 26:38. Eze 36:13-14.) namely, of consuming its inhabitants; there seems no reason why the people should have been afraid to go up against the inhabitants of a land which itself destroyed them. But if it be said, that the evil report was brought upon the land itself, (and the reply of Caleb and Joshua in the next chapter, Num 13:7-8 is immediately levelled against such a calumny,) the reader then must understand the phrase as expressive of the badness and unhealthful nature of the country.
REFLECTIONS.After forty days waiting, the spies return; and they who had sent them in unbelief, and tempted God by their distrust, are now justly left to stumble at their own inventions; the men who were sent greatly disagree in report and sentiment, and, as is too commonly the case, the few faithful are rejected amidst the multitude of gain-sayers. Where the things of God are concerned, they who follow the multitude will infallibly err. (1.) The coward-heart magnifies every object and increases every difficulty. (2.) Unbelief says of our spiritual enemies as they did of the sons of Anak, they are too mighty for us. (3.) Caleb rises to contradict so false and dishonorable a representation, and to encourage the people immediately to go up and possess the land. He affirms that they are able; and well he might: 600,000 men with Moses at their head,what need they fear; but this is the least of their strength; God is in the midst of them, his pillar leads the way, his power they have repeatedly experienced; miracles for their safety were common, and might be expected, when assurances of their victory had been so repeatedly given from God, and Canaan promised to be their possession. Note; (1.) Zeal for God dares every danger. (2.) Faith makes men confident of success. Though earth and hell, and all the powers of both, conspire against the believer, to obstruct his way to heaven, he goes on in the strength of the Lord and the power of his might, conquering and to conquer.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
brought up an evil report = sent forth a slander. Compare Num 14:37.
we saw. The language of unbelief.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
brought: Num 14:36, Num 14:37, Deu 1:28, Mat 23:13
a land: Num 13:28, Eze 36:13, Amo 2:9
men of a great stature: Heb. men of statures, 2Sa 21:20, *Heb: 1Ch 20:6, *marg.
Reciprocal: Deu 7:17 – These nations Jos 2:24 – Truly the Lord 2Sa 21:16 – of the sons Psa 44:2 – how thou didst afflict Psa 106:24 – they despised Pro 22:13 – The slothful Isa 45:14 – men of stature Eze 36:12 – no more
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 13:32. Eateth up its inhabitants Not so much by civil wars, for that was likely to make their conquest more easy; but rather by the unwholesomeness of the air and place, which they guessed from the many funerals which, as some Hebrew writers, not without probability, affirm they observed in their travels through it; though that came to pass from another cause, even from the singular providence of God, which, to facilitate the Israelites conquest, cut off vast numbers of the Canaanites, either by a plague, or by the hornet sent before them, as is expressed Jos 24:12. Le Clerc, indeed, explains this of their being liable to be destroyed, or eaten up, by the incursions of many neighbouring enemies, in which sense the same phrase is used Eze 36:12. The Jews, however, take it to be meant of famine, by which the country was wont to consume its inhabitants, and which they suppose to have distressed it at that time.
But the spies had before acknowledged it to be a plentiful land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Many, therefore, understand the expression as denoting the number of the inhabitants, and would translate the original words, The land is meat for its inhabitants; that is, the inhabitants devour and eat up all the produce of the land.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, [is] a land that {l} eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it [are] men of a great stature.
(l) The giants were so cruel, that they spoiled and killed one another and those that came to them.