Numbers 13:32-33

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 13:26-33

It is a wonder how the people of Israel had patience to stay forty days for the return of their spies, when they were just ready to enter Canaan, under all the assurances of success they could have from the divine power, and a constant series of miracles that had hitherto attended them; but they distrusted God's power and promise, and were willing to be held in suspense by their own counsels, rather than be brought to a certainty by God's covenant. How much do we stand in our own light by our... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 13:32

And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel ,.... Before, they gave a good report of the land itself, as a very fruitful one, answering to their expectations and wishes; but now they change their language, and give a different account of it; which shows their want of integrity, and to what length an opposition carried them, to say things contrary to their real sentiments, and to what they themselves had said before: saying, the land... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 13:33

And there we saw the giants ,.... Not throughout the land, and yet it is so expressed, and in such connection with what goes before, that it might be so understood, and as they might choose it should; that as there were men everywhere of an uncommon size, and were generally so, there were some larger than they in all places, of a prodigious size, of a gigantic stature; and yet this was only in Hebron where they saw them: the sons of Anak ; whose names are given, Numbers 13:22 ; and... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 13:32

Men of a great stature - מדות אנשי anshey middoth , men of measures - two men's height; i. e., exceedingly tall men. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 13:33

There we saw the giants - נפלים nephilim . It is evident that they had seen a robust, sturdy, warlike race of men, and of great stature; for the asserted fact is not denied by Joshua or Caleb. Tales of gigantic men are frequent in all countries, but they are generally of such as have lived in times very remote from those in which such tales are told. That there have been giants at different times, in various parts of the earth, there can be no doubt; but that there ever was a nation of... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 13:32

Verse 32 32.But the men that went up with him said. We here see, as in a mirror, how impiety gradually gathers audaciousness in evil. At the outset, the authors of the rebellion were ambiguous in their expressions, and contented themselves with obscure insinuations; they now throw aside all shame, and openly and acrimoniously oppose the address of Caleb, which was certainly nothing less than casting discredit on God’s words, and setting at naught His power. God had promised to give the land to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Numbers 13:1-45

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Numbers 13:32

A land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. This cannot mean that the people died of starvation, pestilence, or other natural causes, which would have been contrary to facts and to their own report. It must mean that the population was continually changing through internecine wars, and the incursions of fresh tribes from the surrounding wastes. The history of Palestine from first to last testifies to the constant presence of this d anger. The remarkable variation in the lists of tribes... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Numbers 13:33

The giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, אֶת־הַנְּפִילים בְּנִי עַנָק מִן־הַנְּפִלים . The Nephilim, Beni-Anak, of the Nephilim. The Septuagint has only τοὺς γίγαντας . The Nephilim are, without doubt, the primaeval tyrants mentioned under that name in Genesis 6:4 . The renown of these sons of violence had come down from those dim ages, and the exaggerated fears of the spies saw them revived in the gigantic forms of the Beni-Anak. There is no certainty... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Numbers 13:32

A land that eateth up ... - i. e. it is a land which from its position is exposed to incessant attacks from one quarter and another, and so its occupants must be always armed and watchful. read more

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