Deuteronomy 1:23

THE MESSAGE

That 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!"

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:

King James Version
And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe:

Lexham English Bible
The plan was good in my opinion, and so I took from among you twelve men, one from each tribe.

English Standard Version
The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe.

New Century Version
I thought that was a good idea, so I chose twelve of your men, one for each tribe.

New English Translation
I thought this was a good idea, so I sent twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.

Amplified Bible
"The plan pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.

New American Standard Bible
"The plan pleased me, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

Geneva Bible (1587)
So the saying pleased me well, and I tooke twelue men of you, of euery tribe one.

Legacy Standard Bible
And the thing was good in my sight, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

Contemporary English Version
It seemed like a good idea, so I chose twelve men, one from each tribe.

Complete Jewish Bible
The idea seemed good to me, so I took twelve of your men, one from each tribe;

Darby Translation
And the matter was good in mine eyes; and I took twelve men of you, one man for a tribe.

Easy-to-Read Version
"I thought that was a good idea. So I chose twelve men from among you, one man from each tribe.

George Lamsa Translation
And the saying pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man of each tribe;

Good News Translation
"That seemed like a good thing to do, so I selected twelve men, one from each tribe.

Christian Standard Bible®
The plan seemed good to me, so I selected twelve men from among you, one man for each tribe.

Literal Translation
And the thing was good in my eyes, and I took twelve men of you, one man for each tribe.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
That pleased me well, and I toke twolue men from amonge you, of euery trybe one.

American Standard Version
And the thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:

Bible in Basic English
And what you said seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from among you, one from every tribe;

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the saying pleased me well: and I toke twelue men of you, of euery tribe one.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe;

King James Version (1611)
And the saying pleased mee well: and I tooke twelue men of you, one of a tribe.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the saying pleased me: and I took of you twelve men, one man of a tribe.

English Revised Version
And the thing pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:

Berean Standard Bible
The plan seemed good to me, so I selected twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And whanne the word pleside to me, Y sente of you twelue men, of ech lynage oon.

Young's Literal Translation
and the thing is good in mine eyes, and I take of you twelve men, one man for a tribe.

Update Bible Version
And the thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:

Webster's Bible Translation
And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe:

World English Bible
The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:

New King James Version
"The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.

New Living Translation
"This seemed like a good idea to me, so I chose twelve scouts, one from each of your tribes.

New Life Bible
What you said pleased me. I took twelve of your men, one man for each family group.

New Revised Standard
The plan seemed good to me, and I selected twelve of you, one from each tribe.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And the thing, was good in mine eyes, - so I took from among you twelve men, one man for each tribe.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And because the saying pleased me, I sent of you twelve men, one of every tribe:

Revised Standard Version
The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men of you, one man for each tribe;

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

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

Numbers 13:3-33

Reciprocal: Numbers 20:1 - Then Numbers 32:8 - General Joshua 4:2 - twelve men 1 Samuel 20:7 - It is well

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the saying pleased me well,.... Taking it to be a rational and prudent scheme, not imagining it was the effect of fear and distrust:

and I took twelve men of you out of a tribe; whose names are given in

Numbers 13:4.

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.