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Numbers 13 Bible study: Well able
The spies' report began, "Surely it flows with milk and honey" (13:27). What followed turned on one Hebrew verb: Caleb said it twice, "we are well able", and the others said it with a "not" (13:30-31). And the three sons of Anak they saw at Hebron (13:22) are the three Caleb drove out years later (Joshua 15:14).
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“Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let’s go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it!””
Try it · Did you catch it?
“The three sons of Anak the spies saw at Hebron are the same three Caleb later drove out.”
Is that in Numbers 13, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Every one a prince
"The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a prince among them.’" (13:1-2). The land is already described as given: "which I give". Moses sends them "according to the commandment of the LORD", and "All of them were men who were heads of the children of Israel" (13:3). Then comes a name for every tribe (13:4-15). They are not the twelve who stood with Moses for the census in Numbers 1. There, Judah's man was "Nahshon the son of Amminadab" (1:7); here it is "Caleb the son of Jephunneh" (13:6). There, Ephraim's was "Elishama the son of Ammihud" (1:10); here it is "Hoshea the son of Nun" (13:8). None of the twelve names in 13:4-15 is in the list of 1:5-15. And at the end of the list comes one line: "Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua" (13:16).
Where it leads to Jesus
Not mixed with faith
Numbers 13:31leads toHebrews 4:2
The LORD had called it "the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel" (13:2). The spies brought back its fruit (13:23, 13:26), and still said, "We aren’t able to go up against the people" (13:31). Hebrews looks back on that generation: "For who, when they heard, rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?" (Hebrews 3:16), and "We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:19). Then it sets its readers beside them: "For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard" (Hebrews 4:2). A few verses earlier Hebrews says, "we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end" (Hebrews 3:14). Hebrews speaks of the whole generation and doesn't name the spies' report; that this chapter is the start of what it describes is a reading, since the refusal and the oath come in Numbers 14.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Numbers 13
That was a taste
The rest of Numbers 13 is waiting in Favor
- Where they walked
- The same land, two answers
- Caleb and Hebron, forty-five years on
- The report, remembered
- 12 questions as you read
- 9 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Numbers 13 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
יָכֹלyakholsay ya-KHOL
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be able, have power, prevail, endure". Caleb's "we are well able to overcome it" (13:30) is, in Hebrew, the verb twice over, yakhol nukhal. So is his "Let’s go up at once": alo na'aleh, the verb "go up" twice. The others answer with the same verb and a "not": "We aren’t able to go up against the people" (13:31). The land and the people are the same in both answers; what differs is "able" and "aren’t able". The verb comes three times in these two verses.
For your group
Numbers 13 Bible study questions
- 1Caleb and the other spies saw the same land and the same people (13:27-31), and came back with opposite answers. When have you and someone else looked at the same facts and come to different conclusions? What made the difference?
- 2"We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" (13:33). How does the way you see yourself shape what you think others see, and what you think you can do?
- 3Caleb "stilled the people before Moses" (13:30) and spoke up, though the men who went with him disagreed (13:31). What would it take for you to speak up like that in your family, church or work?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 13 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home