🔢WEB · Numbers 13:33
What does Numbers 13:33 mean?
"There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”"
— Numbers 13:33 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it!”
But the men who went up with him said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”
They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature.
There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
Explanation
This verse comes from the report of the twelve spies whom Moses sent to scout the land of Canaan before Israel's planned entry into the Promised Land. After forty days of exploring, ten of the twelve spies returned with a discouraging account, and this verse is the climax of their fearful testimony. They claim to have seen the Nephilim there, specifically identifying them as "the sons of Anak," a group known for their great size and strength. The spies then describe their own reaction: they felt like grasshoppers next to these people, and they assumed the Anakites saw them the same way.
To understand the context, it helps to know that "Nephilim" is a term used earlier in Genesis 6:4, referring to a mysterious group described as being present "in those days, and also after that." Whether the spies were using the term accurately or exaggerating for effect is not entirely clear from the text, but the association with the Nephilim was clearly meant to evoke fear and a sense of overwhelming, almost legendary opposition. Numbers 13 as a whole records that ten of the twelve spies gave this discouraging report, while only Caleb and Joshua urged the people to trust God and move forward into the land despite the challenges they had seen.
Theologically, this verse illustrates a critical moment of unbelief in Israel's history. The spies' problem was not that they misreported physical facts about fortified cities or large inhabitants — the land did have formidable peoples and cities, as later verses confirm. The deeper issue was perspective: they measured the situation only by human strength and their own fear, leaving God ent
Compare translations
Go deeper with ScriptureCompanion AI
Ask questions about any verse, follow reading plans, write personal prayers, and track your daily habit — all grounded in verified scripture text.