While Israel camped in the wilderness of Paran, God told Moses to send men to explore Canaan, the land being given to Israel. Moses chose one leader from each tribe. Caleb son of Jephunneh represented Judah; Hoshea son of Nun represented Ephraim, and Moses called him Joshua.
Moses sent them through the Negeb toward the hill country. They were to see whether the people were strong or weak, numerous or few; whether the land was good or bad; whether the towns were open camps or fortified; and whether the soil was rich or poor. They were to bring back fruit. It was the season of the first ripe grapes.
The men explored from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob near Lebo-hamath. At Hebron they saw descendants of Anak. In the valley of Eshcol they cut one cluster of grapes so large that two men carried it on a pole. They also brought pomegranates and figs. After forty days they returned to Moses, Aaron, and the congregation at Kadesh.
They showed the fruit and said that the land flowed with milk and honey. Yet they also said its inhabitants were strong, its cities large and fortified, and descendants of Anak lived there. Caleb quieted the people and urged them to go up at once, saying that they could take the land. The others insisted that the inhabitants were stronger and called the land one that devoured its people. They said they had seen giants and felt like grasshoppers.
That night the whole congregation wept. The people complained against Moses and Aaron, saying they wished they had died in Egypt or the wilderness. They proposed choosing a leader and returning to Egypt. Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the assembly.
Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes. They said the land was exceedingly good and that, if the LORD delighted in them, he would bring them into it. They urged the people not to rebel or fear its inhabitants, whose protection had departed. The congregation answered by proposing to stone them.
The glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting. God spoke of the people’s unbelief despite the signs they had seen. Moses pleaded that Egypt and the nations would say God had brought Israel out only to kill them, and appealed to God’s patience, steadfast love, and forgiveness. God said he forgave according to Moses’s word.
Still, those counted from twenty years old and above who had tested God and refused the word would not see the land. Caleb, who had followed God fully, would enter it; Joshua would enter as well. The children whom the people called prey would be brought in. Israel would bear its guilt for forty years, one year for each day of exploration. The ten men who spread the bad report died in a plague, while Joshua and Caleb remained alive.
When Moses told the people, they mourned greatly. Early the next morning they went up toward the hill country, saying they had sinned and would now go where the LORD had spoken. Moses warned that this too disobeyed God and that the LORD was not among them. The ark and Moses did not leave the camp. Nevertheless the people presumptuously went up, and Amalekites and Canaanites came down from the hill country, struck them, and pursued them to Hormah.