“Pergentesque usque ad Torrentem botri, absciderunt palmitem cum uva sua, quem portaverunt in vecte duo viri. De malis quoque granatis et de ficis loci illius tulerunt :”
“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”
“Because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there, that place was called the Valley of Eshcol.”
“That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from there.”
“That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from thence.”
Cross references: : Deut. 1:24
Torrent. Septuagint, “vale.” — Its. Hebrew, “one cluster.” — Two men, Josue and Caleb; (St. Maximus) though the Rabbins say they carried nothing. — Lever, or staff, suspending it thus, in order that it might not be crushed. In that valley, Doubdan (i. 21,) was assured by the religious, that clusters, weighing twelve pounds, might still be found. Pliny (Natural History? xiv. 1,) says, there are some in Africa, larger than a male infant. Strabo (xi.) describes some in Carmania, two cubits high. Forster saw a religious man at Nuremberg, who had lived eight years in Palestine, and assured him that two men could hardly carry a bunch of grapes, such as grew in the vale of Hebron: (Calmet) but this may seem to be an hyperbole. (Haydock) — Lucas (T. i. p. 310,) assures us, that he had seen a bunch at Damascus, weighing above forty pounds. The Fathers here contemplate Jesus Christ, suspended between the two testaments, the synagogue and the Church: the juice, or blood of the grape, (Genesis xlix. 2., and Deuteronomy xxxii. 14,) denotes his passion. (St. Jerome, ep. ad Fab.; St. Bernard in Cant. ser. xliv.) (Calmet)
Verses 21-25 The searchers of the land brought a bunch of grapes with them, and other fruits, as proofs of the goodness of the country; which was to Israel both the earnest and the specimen of all the fruits of Canaan. Such are the present comforts we have in communion with God, foretastes of the fulness of joy we expect in the heavenly Canaan. We may see by them what heaven is.