The Twelve Spies and the Forty Years
Twelve men, one from each tribe, are sent to reconnoitre Canaan. They return after forty days with a single cluster of grapes carried on a pole between two of them, and with a divided report: the land is good, but the towns are fortified and the people are strong. Ten of them say the inhabitants are giants and that the Israelites seemed like grasshoppers by comparison.
Caleb and Joshua dissent and are nearly stoned for it. The community weeps all night and talks of choosing a leader to take them back to Egypt.
The judgment matches the fear: that generation will not enter the land, and will wander for forty years — a year for each day the spies were gone. Only Caleb and Joshua live to cross. A late attempt to invade anyway, against Moses' warning, is beaten back.
Where in scripture
[1] Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, [2] “Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a prince among them.” [3] Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Yahweh. All of them were men who were heads of the children of Israel. [4] These were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. [5] Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. [6] Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. [7] Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. [8] Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun. [9] Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. [10] Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. …
Numbers 13:1–33 — opening verses
[1] All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. [2] All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness! [3] Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?” [4] They said to one another, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” [5] Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. [6] Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes. …
Numbers 14:1–45 — opening verses
[19] We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. [20] I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us. [21] Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.” [22] You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, “Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.” [23] The thing pleased me well. I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe. …
Deuteronomy 1:19–46 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
