Ye are spies: Persons who, under the pretence of wishing to buy corn, desire only to find out whether the land be so defenceless that the tribes to which you belong may attack it successfully, drive out the inhabitants, and settle themselves in it; or, having plundered it, retire into their deserts. This is a frequent custom among the Arabs to the present day. Gen 42:9, Gen 42:16, Gen 42:30-31, Gen 42:34; Num 13:2, Num 13:16-20; Jos 2:1, Jos 6:23; Jdg 1:24; 1Sa 26:4; Luk 20:20; Heb 11:31