Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 13:17
17. Southward Hebrew, Negeb, or South-Country. “As a geographical term the name has been entirely ignored in the English version, where the word is invariably translated ‘the south,’ (as a point of the compass;) and the misapprehension has given rise to several absurd contradictions in terms. Thus, when the spies went up from Kadesh we are told that Moses ‘said unto them, Get you up this way southward,’ [R.V., ‘by’ (marg. ‘into’) ‘the South;’] ‘and they went up by the South, and came... read more
Wesley's Explanatory Notes - Numbers 13:17
And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:Southward — Into the southern part of Canaan, which was the nearest part, and the worst too, being dry and desert, and therefore fit for them to enter and pass through with less observation.Into the mountain — Into the mountainous country, and thence into the valleys, and so take a survey of the whole land. read more