*Sacred Scripture* Moses and Envoys from Canaan – Lanfranco

Moses, especially marked by the horns of light on his head, receives news from the scouts returning from Canaan, who describe how strong the cities are there. The messengers also bring some fine grapes from the enemy territory, demonstrating how fertile the land is. Hearing of the difficulty of invasion, the Jews begin to murmur, as seen in the background of the image. Artwork by G. Lanfranco.

Nm 13:25-33

Their Report.

25They returned from reconnoitering the land forty days later.

26^d Proceeding directly to Moses and Aaron and the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, they made a report to them and to the whole community, showing them the fruit of the land.

27They told Moses: “We came to the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.

28However, the people who are living in the land are powerful, and the towns are fortified and very large.^e Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there.

29Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along the sea and the banks of the Jordan.”

30Caleb, however, quieted the people before Moses and said, “We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly prevail over it.”

31But the men who had gone up with him said, “We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us.”

32They spread discouraging reports^f among the Israelites about the land they had reconnoitered, saying, “The land that we went through and reconnoitered is a land that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge.

33^g There we saw the Nephilim^* (the Anakim are from the Nephilim); in our own eyes we seemed like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them.”

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/numbers/13