Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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The major part discourage the people from going forward to Canaan; and justly are the Israelites left to this temptation, for putting so much confidence in the judgment of men, when they had the word of God to trust to. It is a righteous thing with God to give those up to strong delusions who will not receive his truth in the love of it.
1. Observe their report.
(1.) They could not deny but that the land of Canaan was a very fruitful land; the bunch of grapes they brought with them was an ocular demonstration of it, Nu 13:27. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, and the evil spies themselves own that it is such a land. Thus even out of the mouth of adversaries will God be glorified and the truth of his promise attested. And yet afterwards they contradict themselves, when they say (Nu 13:32), It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; as if, though it had milk, and honey, and grapes, yet it wanted other necessary provision; some think that there was a great plague in the country at the time they surveyed it, which they ought to have imputed to the wisdom of the divine Providence, which thus lessened the numbers of their enemies, to facilitate their conquests; but they invidiously imputed it to the unwholesomeness of the air, and thence took occasion to disparage the country. For this unreasonable fear of a plague in Canaan, they were justly cut off immediately by a plague in the wilderness, Nu 14:37. But,
(2.) They represented the conquest of it as altogether impracticable, and that it was to no purpose to attempt it. The people are strong (Nu 13:28), men of a great stature (Nu 13:32), stronger than we, Nu 13:31. The cities are represented as impregnable fortresses: they are walled and very great, Nu 13:28. But nothing served their ill purpose more than a description of the giants, on whom they lay a great stress: We saw the children of Anak there (Nu 13:28), and again, we saw the giants, those men of a prodigious size, the sons of Anak,