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Numbers 13
From this point twelve men—one from each tribe—were sent out to explore the country, and to report their observations on its advantages, and of its capacities for defence against the intended invasion. In the earlier narrative of Exodus, Moses is described as taking this measure, but from the parallel place in the later narrative—Deu_1:22—it appears that it was on the motion of the people that he did so. This relieves us from some uneasiness, as we can conceive that a measure which he would not himself have suggested, might be such as he could not refuse to sanction, when proposed by the people for their own satisfaction. But, indeed, this step, though natural enough in men left to the resources of human prudence, was in them but feebleness of faith. God had told them that Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey, and they had therefore no need to distrust its advantages. God had promised to give the land to them, and it was needless for them to ascertain the strength of the inhabitants—as if their strength could render the performance of the promise difficult, or their weakness make it easy to Him. It is profoundly remarked by Bishop hall on this very case, “That which the Lord moves unto prospers; but that which we move him unto first, seldom succeedeth.”
Forty days did they spend in the search, and forty years—a year for a day—of toilsome wanderings did that search cost them, connected as it was from beginning to end with distrust and unbelief. They traversed the country in its whole length even unto Hamath—probably not in a body, but in parties of twos or threes. That they were able to do this unsuspected and unmolested, would seem to show that their language was the same as that spoken in Canaan, or not materially different from it. Their general personal appearance must have been similar—there could have been nothing to suggest to the Canaanites that they were foreigners; for had it been known that they belonged to the Hebrew host assembled in the southern frontier, they would hardly have returned with their lives.
Generally the business of a spy is in western armies entrusted to inferior persons; but it was not so among the Hebrews, with whom, as with the Greeks of Homer, its very responsible duties were assigned to persons of consideration, the weight of whose character would give authority to their reports. So in this instance, persons of some importance in their several tribes were chosen for this task. Their names are given; but among them there are only two of historical importance, and these are Caleb for Judah, and Joshua for Ephraim; but the high position of these two men indicates the quality of the others.
It was the season of vintage and fruitage; probably they set out early in September, and returned about the middle of October. When they did return, the multitude gazed with eager and admiring eyes on the luscious fruits which they brought as specimens of the country’s produce—figs, pomegranates, grapes—kinds which indeed they might have seen in Egypt, but where the climate is not congenial to them, and they attain no great perfection. Especially did a vast cluster of grapes from the valley of Eshcol excite their admiration and astonishment. It had been borne between two on a pole, partly by reason of its great size, and in part to protect it from being bruised. The statement about this vine cluster has excited the astonishment of many, and even the incredulity of some. They have inferred unwisely, that the cluster or bunch was so large, that it needed two men to sustain its weight: whereas the text, indicates no more than that it was of such a size that it could not conveniently be conveyed in any other way uninjured. The statement says nothing as to the size of the grapes, but of the cluster. To produce large grapes is not the distinction of good vines, as the largest grapes are seldom the best; nevertheless, while Palestine has varieties of the vine, the grapes of which are small and luscious, there are others whose grapes are large enough to draw expressions of wonder from even the inhabitants of European vine countries. Laborde has given a figure, in the natural proportions of some that he saw, and this corroborates the assertion of an Italian traveler, that the grapes were often as large as plums.
But, in conformity with the text before us, the size, the richness of the clusters of the grapes in many parts of Palestine, excites more astonishment than even that of the grapes. An Italian traveler Note: Mariti. avers, that in different parts of Syria he saw clusters that would be a sufficient burden for one man. A German traveler Note: Neitzschutz. declares, with some solemnity of assertion, that in the mountains of Israel he had seen and eaten from clusters of grapes that were half an ell long, and the grapes of which were equal to two finger joints in length. A very intelligent French traveler Note: Nau. is still more particular. He declares, that one who had seen the vine only in the vine countries of France and Italy, could form no just conception of the size to which the clusters attain in Syria. He had himself seen clusters weighing ten or twelve pounds; and he had reason to believe, that in the Archipelago clusters of thirty or forty pounds were not uncommon. A still older traveler of the same nation Note: Doubdan. tells us, that traveling near Bethlehem, he found himself in a delightful valley, replete with rose-trees and aromatic plants, and planted with vines. This was that which tradition regards as the valley of Eshcol, from which the spies obtained their cluster. Not being there in the season, he did not see the fruit himself; but he was assured that clusters of ten and twelve pounds were not seldom gathered from these vines. We share the doubt, however, that this was the vale of Eshcol, which seems to have been rather near to Hebron. It was in this neighborhood that Nau saw the large vine-clusters of which he makes mention. In this quarter the hill-sides are still thickly planted with vineyards, the vines of which are laden with large clusters of delicious grapes. It is beyond a doubt that the cluster in question was gathered in the south of Palestine; for as the spies had seen these grapes in their outward way, it would have been absurd for them to have gathered any but at the last available point towards their own encampment. As striking an instance as any that we have quoted has occurred in our own country, in regard to the produce of a Syrian vine at Welbeck, the seat of the Duke of Portland. A bunch from this vine was sent, in 1819, as a present to the Marquis of Rockingham, which weighed nineteen pounds. It was conveyed to its destination, more than twenty miles distant, on a staff by four laborers, two of whom bore it in rotation; thus affording a striking illustration of the means adopted by the explorers in transporting the Eshcol cluster. The greatest diameter of this Welbeck cluster was nineteen inches and a-half; its circumference four feet and a-half; and its length nearly twenty-three inches.
This display of rich fruit formed of itself a most emphatically good report of the land, as to natural advantages and productiveness. And the explorers confirmed it by their words. They spoke, indeed, as men who needed to say but little with the material evidence they were enabled to produce “Surely, it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it.” But does the land indeed deserve all the praise anciently bestowed upon its productiveness? Many, looking at that land now, have been disposed to doubt this; and are even inclined to suspect that the explorers, fresh from the sterility of the desert, might unintentionally exaggerate the advantages of a land not even then remarkably fertile. But it should be remembered, that although they had spent above a year in the desert, they had not yet forgotten—they remembered but too well—the fertile banks of the Nile. That Palestine is not now a land flowing with milk and honey—that its general aspect does not correspond with the glowing descriptions left us of its fertility and abundance—is most certain. But there are manifold indications that its former state was very different; and there is nothing in its present condition which cannot be accounted for by long-continued neglect of tillage, resulting from the scantiness of the population. It is possible, indeed, that some parts of the land, once fertile, are now irreclaimable. The entire destruction of the wood that once covered the mountains, and the utter neglect of the terraces that supported the soil on steep declivities, have given full scope to the rains, which have left many tracts of bare rock where formerly were vineyards and corn-fields. It is likely, too, that the disappearance of trees from the higher grounds, where they invited and arrested the passing clouds, may have diminished the quantity of rain, and so have exposed the whole country in a greater degree to the evils of drought, and doomed some particular tracts to absolute sterility. But apart from this, the most competent observers have declared that they do not recognize any permanent or invincible causes of barrenness, or any physical obstacles in the way of restoring the land to its pristine fertility.