Of Spies and Rebellions: Numbers 13–14 constitutes one of the central narratives in the book, a kind of watershed that determines the course of a generation in Israel. The narrative is complicated and carefully constructed, taking a variety of turns along the way.

Since the census in Numbers 1, readers have been prepared for some military encounter. As chapter 13 begins, the people in the Desert of Paran appear on the verge of the land they have been promised and are preparing to take possession of it.

13:1–16 These verses are reminiscent of Numbers 1–10. Moses receives divine instruction to explore the promised land: Send some men to explore the land of Canaan. The land is described as a divine gift. Leaders from each tribe are to make up the group of twelve explorers, whose names are then …