and walked
over the mountains of Canaan and looked at the cities and saw the
fields. In one place, just before they came back to the camp, they cut
down a cluster of ripe grapes which was so large that two men carried it
between them, hanging from a staff. They named the place where they
found this bunch of grapes Eshcol, a word which means "a cluster." These
twelve men were called "spies," because they went "to spy out the land";
and after forty days they came back to the camp, and this was what they
said:

"We walked all over the land and found it a rich land. There is grass
for all our flocks, and fields where we can raise grain, and trees
bearing fruits, and streams running down the sides of the hills. But we
found that the people who live there are very strong and are men of war.
They have cities with walls that reach almost up to the sky; and some of
the men are giants, so tall that we felt that we were like grasshoppers
beside them."

One of the spies, who was Caleb, said, "All that is true, yet we need
not be afraid to go up and take the land. It is a good land, well worth
fighting for; God is on our side, and he will help us to overcome those
people."

But all the other spies, except Joshua, said, "No, there is no use in
trying to make war upon such strong people. We can never take those
walled cities, and we dare not fight those tall giants."

And the people, who had journeyed all the way through the wilderness to
find this very land, were so frightened by the words of the ten spies
that now, on the very border of Canaan, they dared not enter it. They
forgot that God had led them out of Egypt, that he had kept them in the
dangers of the desert, that he had given them water out of the rock, and
bread from the sky, and his law from the mountain.

All that night, after the spies had brought back their report, the
people were so frightened that they could not sleep. They cried out
against Moses, and blamed him for bringing them out of the land of
Egypt. They forgot all their troubles in Egypt, their toil and their
slavery, and resolved to go back to that land. They said:

"Let us choose a ruler in place of Moses, who has brought us into all
these evils, and let us turn back to the land of Egypt!"

But Caleb and Joshua, two of the spies, said, "Why should we fear? The
land of Canaan is a good land; it is rich with milk and honey. If God is
our friend and is with us, we can easily conquer the people who liv