Deuteronomy 1:22

THE MESSAGE

But then you all came to me and said, "Let's send some men on ahead to scout out the land for us and bring back a report on the best route to take and the kinds of towns we can expect to find."

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
You came near to me everyone of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.

King James Version
And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.

Lexham English Bible
"Then all of you approached me, and you said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them explore the land for us, and let them bring back a report to us concerning the way that we should take and concerning the cities that we shall come to.'

English Standard Version
Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.'

New Century Version
Then all of you came to me and said, "Let's send men before us to spy out the land. They can come back and tell us about the way we should go and the cities we will find."

New English Translation
So all of you approached me and said, "Let's send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there."

Amplified Bible
"Then all of you approached me and said, 'Let us send men [into the land] before us, so that they may explore and search the area for us, and bring back to us word regarding the way we should go, and the cities we should enter.'

New American Standard Bible
"Then all of you approached me and said, 'Let us send men ahead of us, so that they may spy out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up, and the cities which we should enter.'

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then ye came vnto me euery one, and said, We wil send men before vs, to search vs out the land & to bring vs word againe, what way we must go vp by, & vnto what cities we shall come.

Legacy Standard Bible
"Then all of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.'

Contemporary English Version
Then all of you came to me and said, "Before we go into the land, let's send some men to explore it. When they come back, they can tell us about the towns we will find and what roads we should take to get there."

Complete Jewish Bible
(iii) "You approached me, every one of you, and said, ‘Let's send men ahead of us to explore the country for us and bring back word concerning what route we should use in going up and what the cities we will encounter are like.'

Darby Translation
And ye came near to me all of you, and said, We will send men before us, who shall examine the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and of the cities to which we shall come.

Easy-to-Read Version
"But all of you came to me and said, ‘Let's send some men to look at the land first. They can spy out the land and come back and tell us the way we should go and which cities we will come to.'

George Lamsa Translation
Then all of you came near to me and said, Let us send men before us, and they shall spy out the land for us, and bring us word again and show us the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.

Good News Translation
"But you came to me and said, ‘Let's send men ahead of us to spy out the land, so that they can tell us the best route to take and what kind of cities are there.'

Christian Standard Bible®
“Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let’s send men ahead of us, so that they may explore the land for us and bring us back a report about the route we should go up and the cities we will come to.’

Literal Translation
And you came near to me, every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, and they shall search out the land for us, and they shall bring us back word as to the way in which we shall go up, and the cities to which we shall come.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Then came ye all vnto me, and sayde: Let vs sende men before vs, to spye vs out the londe, and to brynge vs worde agayne, by what waye we shal go vp, and to what cities we shal come.

American Standard Version
And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come.

Bible in Basic English
And you came near to me, every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us to go through the land with care and give us an account of the way we are to go and the towns to which we will come.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And ye came vnto me euery one, and sayde: we wyll sende men before vs, to searche vs out the land, and to bryng vs worde agayne what way we must go vp by, & vnto what cities we shall come.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said: 'Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us back word of the way by which we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come.'

King James Version (1611)
And ye came neere vnto mee euery one of you, and said, We will send men before vs, and they shall search vs out the land, and bring vs word againe, by what way we must goe vp, and into what cities we shall come.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And ye all came to me, and said, Let us send men before us, and let them go up to the land for us; and let them bring back to us a report of the way by which we shall go up, and of the cities into which we shall enter.

English Revised Version
And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come.

Berean Standard Bible
Then all of you approached me and said, "Let us send men ahead of us to search out the land and bring us word of what route to follow and which cities to enter."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And alle ye neiyiden to me, and ye seiden, Sende we men, that schulen biholde the lond, and telle to vs bi what weye we owen stie, and to whiche citees we owen to go.

Young's Literal Translation
`And ye come near unto me, all of you, and say, Let us send men before us, and they search for us the land, and they bring us back word [concerning] the way in which we go up into it, and the cities unto which we come in;

Update Bible Version
And you came near to me every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.

Webster's Bible Translation
And ye came near to me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall explore the land for us, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.

World English Bible
You came near to me everyone of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.

New King James Version
"And every one of you came near to me and said, "Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.'

New Living Translation
"But you all came to me and said, ‘First, let's send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and which towns we should enter.'

New Life Bible
Then all of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, to spy out the land for us. They will return and tell us which way we should go and which cities we will come to.'

New Revised Standard
All of you came to me and said, "Let us send men ahead of us to explore the land for us and bring back a report to us regarding the route by which we should go up and the cities we will come to."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And ye came near unto me all of you, and said Let us send men before us, that they may search out for us the land, - and bring us back word, the way by which we must go up, and the cities whereinto we must enter,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And you came all to me, and said: Let us send men who may view the land, and bring us word what way we shall go up, and to what cities we shall go.

Revised Standard Version
Then all of you came near me, and said, 'Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Then all of you approached me and said, 'Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.'

Contextual Overview

¹⁹Then we set out from Horeb and headed for the Amorite hill country, going through that huge and frightening wilderness that you've had more than an eyeful of by now—all under the command of God , our God—and finally arrived at Kadesh Barnea. There I told you, "You've made it to the Amorite hill country that God , our God, is giving us. Look, God , your God, has placed this land as a gift before you. Go ahead and take it now. God , the God-of-Your-Fathers, promised it to you. Don't be afraid. Don't lose heart." ²² But then you all came to me and said, "Let's send some men on ahead to scout out the land for us and bring back a report on the best route to take and the kinds of towns we can expect to find." ²³That seemed like a good idea to me, so I picked twelve men, one from each tribe. They set out, climbing through the hills. They came to the Eshcol Valley and looked it over. They took samples of the produce of the land and brought them back to us, saying, "It's a good land that God , our God, is giving us!" ²⁶But then you weren't willing to go up. You rebelled against God , your God's plain word. You complained in your tents: " God hates us. He hauled us out of Egypt in order to dump us among the Amorites—a death sentence for sure! How can we go up? We're trapped in a dead end. Our brothers took all the wind out of our sails, telling us, ‘The people are bigger and stronger than we are; their cities are huge, their defenses massive—we even saw Anakite giants there!'" ²⁹I tried to relieve your fears: "Don't be terrified of them. God , your God, is leading the way; he's fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; you saw what he did in the wilderness, how God , your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you're here, you won't trust God , your God—this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go." ³⁴When God heard what you said, he exploded in anger. He swore, "Not a single person of this evil generation is going to get so much as a look at the good land that I promised to give to your parents. Not one—except for Caleb son of Jephunneh. He'll see it. I'll give him and his descendants the land he walked on because he was all for following God , heart and soul." ³⁷But I also got it. Because of you God 's anger spilled over onto me. He said, "You aren't getting in either. Your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will go in. Build up his courage. He's the one who will claim the inheritance for Israel. And your babies of whom you said, ‘They'll be grabbed for plunder,' and all these little kids who right now don't even know right from wrong—they'll get in. I'll give it to them. Yes, they'll be the new owners. But not you. Turn around and head back into the wilderness following the route to the Red Sea." ⁴¹ You spoke up, "We've sinned against God . We'll go up and fight, following all the orders that God , our God, has commanded." You took your weapons and dressed for battle—you thought it would be so easy going into those hills! ⁴² But God told me, "Tell them, ‘Don't do it; don't go up to fight—I'm not with you in this. Your enemies will waste you.'" ⁴³I told you but you wouldn't listen. You rebelled at the plain word of God . You threw out your chests and strutted into the hills. And those Amorites, who had lived in those hills all their lives, swarmed all over you like a hive of bees, chasing you from Seir all the way to Hormah, a stinging defeat. You came back and wept in the presence of God , but he didn't pay a bit of attention to you; God didn't give you the time of day. You stayed there in Kadesh a long time, about as long as you had stayed there earlier.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

We will send: The people proposed this measure through unbelief; Moses, mistaking their motive, approved of it; and God, being justly displeased, permitted them to follow their own counsel, which proved injurious to them only through their sin and folly. Numbers 13:1-20

Reciprocal: Numbers 13:2 - Send thou Numbers 20:1 - Then Numbers 32:8 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 1:14
God spoke: "Lights! Come out! Shine in Heaven's sky! Separate Day from Night. Mark seasons and days and years, Lights in Heaven's sky to give light to Earth." And there it was.

Genesis 9:1
God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature—birds, animals, fish—will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You're responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don't eat that.

Genesis 30:27
Laban said, "If you please, I have learned through divine inquiry that God has blessed me because of you." He went on, "So name your wages. I'll pay you."

Genesis 35:11
God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation—a whole company of nations!— will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants.

Job 40:15
"Look at the land beast, Behemoth. I created him as well as you. Grazing on grass, docile as a cow— Just look at the strength of his back, the powerful muscles of his belly. His tail sways like a cedar in the wind; his huge legs are like beech trees. His skeleton is made of steel, every bone in his body hard as steel. Most magnificent of all my creatures, but I still lead him around like a lamb! The grass-covered hills serve him meals, while field mice frolic in his shadow. He takes afternoon naps under shade trees, cools himself in the reedy swamps, Lazily cool in the leafy shadows as the breeze moves through the willows. And when the river rages he doesn't budge, stolid and unperturbed even when the Jordan goes wild. But you'd never want him for a pet— you'd never be able to housebreak him!"

Job 42:12
God blessed Job's later life even more than his earlier life. He ended up with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand teams of oxen, and one thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first daughter Dove, the second, Cinnamon, and the third, Darkeyes. There was not a woman in that country as beautiful as Job's daughters. Their father treated them as equals with their brothers, providing the same inheritance.

Psalms 128:3
Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes, your household lush as a vineyard, The children around your table as fresh and promising as young olive shoots. Stand in awe of God's Yes. Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God !

Proverbs 10:22
God 's blessing makes life rich; nothing we do can improve on God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And ye came near unto me everyone of you,.... Not every individual of them, but the heads of their tribes, that represented them; this is not to be understood of the present generation personally, but of their fathers, who all died in the wilderness, save a very few of them; but they being the same people and nation, it is so expressed:

and said, we will send men before us; that is, they thought it was proper and prudent so to do, and came to Moses to consult him about it; for we are not to suppose that they had determined upon it, whether he approved of it or not:

and they shall search us out the land: that they might know what sort of land it was, whether good or bad, fruitful or not, and whether woody or not: see Numbers 13:19

and bring us word again by what way we must go up; or, "concerning the way m in which we must go"; which is the best way of entering it, most easy and accessible, where the passes are most open and least dangerous:

and into what cities we shall come; which it would be the most proper to attack and subdue first.

m את הדרך, "de via", Noldius, p. 117. No. 594. so the Arabic version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The plan of sending the spies originated with the people; and, as in itself a reasonable one, it approved itself to Moses; it was submitted to God, sanctioned by Him, and carried out under special divine direction. The orator’s purpose in this chapter is to bring before the people emphatically their own responsibilites and behavior. It is therefore important to remind them, that the sending of the spies, which led immediately to their complaining and rebellion, was their own suggestion.

The following verses to the end of the chapter give a condensed account, the fuller one being in Num. 13–14, of the occurrences which led to the banishment of the people for 40 years into the wilderness.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 1:22. We will send men before us — See on Numbers 13:1-3.