Passage

Numbers 13.33

Book: Numbers · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

31. But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.

33. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Numbers 13:31-33, ASV)

WEB

31. But the men who went up with him said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” 32. They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature.

33. There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:31-33, WEB)

KJV

31. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. ^{men: Heb. men of statures}

33. 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. (Numbers 13:31-33, KJV)

YLT

31. And the men who have gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for it [is] stronger than we;' 32. and they bring out an evil account of the land which they have spied unto the sons of Israel, saying, 'The land into which we passed over to spy it, is a land eating up its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in its midst [are] men of stature;

33. and there we saw the Nephilim, sons of Anak, of the Nephilim; and we are in our own eyes as grasshoppers; and so we were in their eyes.' (Numbers 13:31-33, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: The ten spies who opposed going up, "the men that went up with" Caleb (Numbers 13:31, ASV).
Audience: The congregation of Israel at Kadesh (Numbers 13:26).
Location: Kadesh, in the wilderness of Paran (Numbers 13:26).
Time period: At the end of the forty days of spying (Numbers 13:25), in the second year after the Exodus; traditionally dated to the 15th or 13th century BC, depending on the Exodus chronology.

Theological reading

The claim is part of an "evil report". The narrator labels the spies' account "an evil report" (Numbers 13:32, ASV), and Caleb and Joshua contradict it (Numbers 13:30, 14:6-9). The report also strains against itself: the land "eateth up the inhabitants thereof", yet its people are "men of great stature" (Numbers 13:32, ASV). The text reports what the spies said without endorsing it. Their fear shows in their own words: "we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" (Numbers 13:33, ASV).

The Nephilim link is disputed. The spies connect the sons of Anak to the Nephilim, a name otherwise found only in Genesis 6:4. Whether they mean literal descent, which would raise questions about the flood, or use the old name as a byword for terror is disputed, and the narrator's verdict on the report counsels caution about building on it. Joshua later cuts off the Anakim from the hill country (Joshua 11:21). See Nephilim and the Sons of God.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Quoted in

Concepts:

Nephilim and the Sons of God

People:

Goliath

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.