On the twenty-seventh day of Siwan Moses sent out the spies from
Kadesh-Barnea in the wilderness of Paran, [510] and following his
directions they went first to the south of Palestine, the poorest part
of the Holy Land. Moses did like the merchants, who first show the
poorer wares, and then the better kind; so Moses wished the spies to
see better parts of the land the farther they advanced into it. When
they reached Hebron, they could judge what a blessed land this was that
had been promised them, for although Hebron was the poorest tract in
all Palestine, it was still much better than Zoan, the most excellent
part of Egypt. When, therefore, the sons of Ham built cities in several
lands, it was Hebron that they erected first, owing to its excellence,
and not Zoan, which they built in Egypt fully seven years later.
Their progress through the land was on the whole easy, for God had
wished it so, that as soon as the spies entered a city, the plague
struck it, and the inhabitants, busied with the burial of their dead,
had neither time nor inclination to concern themselves with the
strangers. [511] Although they met with no evil on the part of the
inhabitants, still the sight of the three giants, Ahiman, Sheshai, and
Talmai inspired them with terror. These were so immensely tall that the
sun reached only to their ankles, and they received their names in
accordance with their size and strength. The strongest among them was
Ahiman, beholding whom one fancied oneself standing at the foot of a
mountain that was about to fall, and exclaimed involuntarily, "What is
this that is coming upon me?" Hence the name Ahiman. Strong as marble
was the second brother, wherefore he was called Sheshai, "marble." The
mighty strides of the third brother threw up plots from the ground when
he walked, hence he was called Talmi, "plots." [512] Not only the sons
of Anak were of such strength and size, but his daughters also, whom
the spies chanced to see. For when these reached the city inhabited by
Anak, that was called Kiriath-Arba, "City of Four," because the giant
Anak and his three sons dwelt there, they were struck with such terror
by them that they sought a hiding place. But what they had believed to
be a cave was only the rind of a huge pomegranate that the giant's
daughter had thrown away, as they later, to their horror, discovered.
For this girl, after having eaten the fruit, remembered that she must
not anger her father by letting the rind lie there, so she picked it up
with the twelve men in it as one picks up an egg shell, and threw it
into the garden, never noticing that she had thrown with it twelve men,
each measuring sixty cubits in height. When they left their hiding
place, they said to one another: "Behold the strength of these women
and judge by their standard the men!" [513]
They soon had an opportunity of testing the strength of the men, for as
soon as the three giants heard of the presence of the Israelite men,
they pursued them, but the Israelites found out with what manner of men
they were dealing even before the giants had caught up with them. One
of the giants shouted, and the spies fell down as men dead, so that it
took a long time for the Canaanites to restore them to life by the aid
of friction and fresh air. The Canaanites hereupon said to them: "Why
do you come here? Is not the whole world your God's, and did not He
parcel it out according to His wish? Came ye here with the purpose of
felling the sacred trees?" The spied declared their innocence,
whereupon the Canaanites permitted them to go their ways unmolested. As
a reward for this kind deed, the nation to which these giants belonged
has been preserved even to this day. [514]
They would certainly not have escaped from the hands of the giants, had
not Moses given them two weapons against them, his staff and the secret
of the Divine Name. These two brought them salvation whenever they felt
they were in danger from the giants. For these were none other than the
seed of the angels fallen in the antediluvian era. Sprung from their
union with the daughters of men, and being half angels, half men, these
giants were only half mortal. They lived very long, and then half their
body withered away. Threatened by an eternal continuance of this
condition, half life, and half death, they preferred either to plunge
into the sea, or by magic herb which they knew to put an end to their
existence. [515] They were furthermore of such enormous size that the
spies, listening one day while the giants discussed them, heard them
say, pointing to the Israelites: "There are grasshoppers by the trees
that have the semblance of men," for "so they were in their sight."
[516]
The spies, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, had resolved from
the start to warn the people against Palestine, and so great was their
influence that Caleb feared he would yield to it. He therefore hastened
to Hebron where the three Patriarchs lie, and, standing at their
graves, said: "Joshua is proof against the pernicious influence of the
spies, for Moses had prayed to God for him. Send up prayers now, my
fathers, for me, that God in His mercy may keep me far from the counsel
of the spies." [517]
There had always been a clash between Caleb and his comrades during
their crossing through Palestine. For whereas he insisted upon taking
along the fruits of the land to show their excellence to the people,
they strongly opposed this suggestion, wishing as they did to keep the
people from gaining an impression of the excellence of the land. Hence
they yielded only when Caleb drew his sword, saying: "If you will not
take of the fruits, either I shall slay you, or you will slay me." They
hereupon cut down a vine, which was so heavy that eight of them had to
carry it, putting upon each the burden of one hundred and twenty seah.
The ninth spy carried a pomegranate, and the tenth a fig, which they
brought from a place that had once belonged to Eshcol, one of Abraham's
friends, but Joshua and Caleb carried nothing at all, because it was
not consistent with their dignity to carry a burden. [518] This vine
was of such gigantic size that the wine pressed from its grapes
sufficed for all the sacrificial libations of Israel during the forty
years' march. [519]
After the lapse of forty days they returned to Moses and the people,
after having crossed through Palestine from end to end. By natural
means it would not, of course, have been possible to traverse all the
land in so short a time, by God made it possible by "bidding the soil
to leap for them," and they covered a great distance in a short time.
God knew that Israel would have to wander in the wilderness forty
years, a year for every day the spies had spent in Palestine, hence He
hastened their progress through the land, that Israel might not have to
stay too long in the wilderness. [520]