“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,”
That is, in Rithmah, which was in Paran, Num. 33:18 .
“And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.”
After the people had required it of Moses, as it is in Deut. 1:22 , then the Lord spake to Moses so to do.
“And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:”
Which in number were twelve, according to the twelve tribes.
“And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)”
Which was in the wilderness of Paran.
“And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. brook: or, valley”
Declaring the antiquity thereof: also Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob were buried there. Which were a kind of giants.
“The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. brook: or, valley Eshcol: that is, A cluster of grapes”
Cross references: : Deut. 1:24
“And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.”
Or, the valley of Eshcol, that is, of grapes.
“The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.”
Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, whom Caleb slew afterward, Josh. 11:21 , 22 .
“And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
The giants were so cruel, that they spoiled and killed one another and those that came to them.