After reading chapter 13:
*Now that the Israelites are in the desert of Paran, Yahweh tells Moses to send twelve men, one from each tribe, to go explore the land lof Canaan. This land was currently being occupied by people who had no idea that Yahweh was giving the Israelites their land. All twelve men are specifically named.
*Moses told the men to go through the Negev and into the hill country to scope out the land and the people. They were told to report on the civilizations and crop growing conditions. It was grape season so they were told to bring back a sample. What if the land was barren and infertile, would the Israelites have rejected Yahweh's gift? Would we be reading this story today? Since historical evidence suggests that the Israelites may have actually been long term natives of that land, this story is probably more like nationalistic propaganda.
*Some of the places the men travelled that we haven't covered before included Rehob and the Negev. When they reached the valley of Eshcol, a place that supposedly still exists, though I could not find much information about it. They took a sample of the crops growing there. Two of the men carried a cluster of grapes on a pole between them. This doesn't necessarily mean the grapes were large and heavy, it may just have been their way of keeping them from getting bruised. The men explored for 40 days, a very biblical length of time.
*They went back and reported to Moses that it was a great land " flowing with milk and honey." Caleb confidently suggested they take the land right away. The other men that had gone were leary of the inhabitants and said they saw Nephilim, or Anakites, who were supposedly of great size. They made them feel as small as grasshoppers.
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