🔢WEB · Numbers 13:20
What does Numbers 13:20 mean?
"and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. Be courageous, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes."
— Numbers 13:20 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way by the South, and go up into the hill country.
See the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds;
and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. Be courageous, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.
So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath.
They went up by the South, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
They came to the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff between two. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.
Explanation
Numbers 13:20 comes at the close of Moses's detailed instructions to the twelve spies he sent to scout out the land of Canaan before Israel's planned entry into it. In plain language, Moses tells the spies to assess whether the soil is rich or poor, whether there is timber available, and then he adds a personal charge: be courageous, and bring back some of the actual produce of the land as evidence of what they find. The verse closes with a small but meaningful detail — this was the season when the first grapes were ripening, meaning the spies were sent out in mid-to-late summer, when the land's fruitfulness would be most visible and verifiable.
The context is Israel's journey from Egypt toward the Promised Land. Moses, acting on God's command (recorded earlier in Numbers 13:1-2), selected one leader from each of the twelve tribes to scout the land of Canaan. This was not a secret reconnaissance mission for military purposes alone; Moses's questions in the surrounding verses (whether the people are strong or weak, the cities fortified or open, the land good or bad) show he wanted a full report on the character and resources of the land Israel was about to inherit. The specific instruction to bring back fruit was practical — tangible produce would confirm to the whole community that the reports of the spies were accurate and that God's promise of a bountiful land was being fulfilled.
Theologically, this verse reflects the tension between faith and empirical confirmation. God had already promised Israel a "land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8), and this sc
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