Numbers 13:1

1. Send thou men Although Canaan had been promised to the Israelites as a God-given inheritance on the condition of their fidelity, yet this promise did not render the means of conquest unnecessary. All the strategy of war was required, such as the ambuscade (Joshua 8:13) and spies, (Joshua 2:1,) in order to success. God’s promises are not designed to supersede, but to stimulate, human activity. Moreover, this reconnaissance afforded to the spies a test of faith in Jehovah, and their report tested the whole nation.

Every one a ruler R.V., “a prince.” Spies in war are usually not men of high rank, but adventurers who court peril for gain or praise; but these spies, though not the tribe-princes named in chaps. i and vii, are rulers or princes selected from their tribes because of their eminence. From Deuteronomy 1:22, we infer that the policy of sending out the spies originated with the Israelites themselves, and was permitted by God as a concession to the weakness of their faith, with a warning to “be of good courage.” Strong faith would have accepted Jehovah’s description of Canaan, and would have leaned on his ability to bring them in according to his oft-repeated promise, without any reconnaissance. Thus suggests the Jewish Midrash. The order of the tribes differs from that in Numbers 1:5-15, only in the separation of Zebulun from the other sons of Leah in Numbers 13:10, and in Numbers 13:11 Manasseh from Ephraim, who together constitute the tribe of Joseph, but are always counted as two tribes, in accordance with the prediction of the dying Jacob in Genesis 48:5-6.