an eye (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
grasshoppers
כַּֽחֲגָבִ֔יםka.cha.ga.Vim
H2284
a locust · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
sight
בְּעֵינֵיהֶֽםbe.'ei.nei.Hem
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 1:28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and…
Genesis 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare chi…
Isaiah 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a cu…
Deuteronomy 9:2 A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children…
1 Samuel 17:42 And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.
Deuteronomy 3:11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the child…
Numbers 13:22 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built s…
Deuteronomy 2:10 The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 13:26–end
It is a wonder how the people of Israel had patience to stay forty days for the return of their spies, when they were just ready to enter Canaan, under all the assurances of success they could have from the divine power, and a constant series of miracles that had hitherto attended them; but they distrusted God's power and promise, and were willing to be held in suspense by their own counsels, rather than be brought to a certainty by God's covenant. How much do we stand in our own light by our unbelief! Well, at length the messengers return, but they agree not in their report.
I. The major part discourage the people from going forward to Canaan; and justly are the Israelites left to this temp…
there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak--The name is derived from the son of Arba, a great man among the Arabians (Jos 15:14), who probably obtained his appellation from wearing a splendid collar or chain round his neck, as the word imports. The epithet "giant" evidently refers here to stature. (See on Gen 6:4). And it is probable the Anakims were a distinguished family, or perhaps a select body of warriors, chosen for their extraordinary size.
we were in our own sight as grasshoppers--a strong Orientalism, by which the treacherous spies gave an exaggerated report of the physical strength of the people of Canaan.
Next: Numbers Chapter 14
John Gill on Numbers 13:33
And there we saw the giants,.... Not throughout the land, and yet it is so expressed, and in such connection with what goes before, that it might be so understood, and as they might choose it should; that as there were men everywhere of an uncommon size, and were generally so, there were some larger than they in all places, of a prodigious size, of a gigantic stature; and yet this was only in Hebron where they saw them:
the sons of Anak; whose names are given, Numbers 13:22; and there were but three of them:
which came of the giants; they, were of the race of giants; for not only Anak their father, but Arba their grandfather was one; Joshua 14:15,
and we were in our own sight as grasshopp…
But if you wish to hear how Paul, who is not only the teacher of the Gentiles but also the master of this warfare, fought first, hear what he himself writes concerning himself, as we have also mentioned above. "Our wrestling," he says, "is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." For this reason he also fits out with spiritual arms and invisible weapons those who are about to fight this spiritual and invisible battle, and says: "put on the breastplate of charity and the helmet of salvation, and take up the shield of faith, in which you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one." "But take up also," he says, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." When therefore you have armed yourself with such weapons, following Joshua as your leader, do not fear those giants; for you will see how Joshua will subject them to you; and just as the fathers trod upon the necks of the nations, so you too will tread upon the necks of the demons. For he himself says to those who follow him faithfully: "behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy." For Jesus always wishes to do wonderful things, wishes to conquer giants by locusts, and from those things which are on the earth, to overcome the heavenly wickednesses. And perhaps this was what he said in the Gospels, that he who believes in him will not only do those things which he himself did, but "will do even greater things," he says, "than these." For truly it seems to me greater if a man, placed in the flesh, frail and perishable, armed only with the faith of Christ and his word, should overcome giants, the legions of demons. Although it is he himself who conquers in us, yet he says that it is more that he conquers through us than that he conquers through himself. Only let us be always armed with these weapons and let our citizenship be always in the heavens. Let every motion of ours, every act, every thought, every word be heavenly. For the more ardently we ascend thither, the more headlong they will descend from thence; and the more we are increased, the lower they will become. Our life, if it be holy, if it be according to God, will bring death to them; if it be sluggish and dissolute, it will…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Anakim — The descendants of Anak (Josh. 11:21; Num. 13:33; Deut. 9:2). They dwelt in the south of Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Hebron (Gen. 23:2; Josh. 15:13). In the days of Abraham (Gen. 14:5, 6) they…
Caleb — A dog. (1.) One of the three sons of Hezron of the tribe of Judah. He is also called Chelubai (1 Chr. 2:9). His descendants are enumerated (18-20, 42-49). (2.) A “son of Hur, the firstborn of…
Giants — (1.) Heb. nephilim, meaning “violent” or “causing to fall” (Gen. 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of those days, those who fell upon others. The word may also be derived from a root signifying…
Grasshopper — Belongs to the class of neuropterous insects called Gryllidae. This insect is not unknown in Palestine. In Judg. 6:5; 7:12; Job 39:30; Jer. 46:23, where the Authorized Version has “grasshopper,” the…
Nephilim — (Gen. 6:4; Num. 13:33, R.V.), giants, the Hebrew word left untranslated by the Revisers, the name of one of the Canaanitish tribes. The Revisers have, however, translated the Hebrew gibborim, in Gen.…
Spies — When the Israelites reached Kadesh for the first time, and were encamped there, Moses selected twelve spies from among the chiefs of the divisions of the tribes, and sent them forth to spy the land…
Vine — One of the most important products of Palestine. The first mention of it is in the history of Noah (Gen. 9:20). It is afterwards frequently noticed both in the Old and New Testaments, and in the…
Wine — The common Hebrew word for wine is yayin, from a root meaning “to boil up,” “to be in a ferment.” Others derive it from a root meaning “to tread out,” and hence the juice of the grape trodden out.…
Anakim · A race of giants — A race of giants
Anakim, The · Were called: The sons of Anak — Were called: The sons of Anak
John Calvin on Numbers 13:1–end
Numbers 13:1-33
1. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
1. Et loquutus est Jehova ad Mosen, dicendo:
2. Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
2. Mitte tibi viros qui explorent terram Chanaan, quam ego daturus sum filiis Israel, singulos viros de singulis tribubus patrum suorum mittetis, unumquenque principem inter eos.
3 And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
3. Misit ergo illos Moses e deserto Paran, juxta sermonem Jehovae: et universi ipsi viri p…
Thus they spread an evil report of the land among the Israelites, by exaggerating the difficulties of the conquest in their unbelieving despair, and describing Canaan as a land which "ate up its inhabitants." Their meaning certainly was not "that the wretched inhabitants were worn out by the laborious task of cultivating it, or that the land was pestilential on account of the inclemency of the weather, or that the cultivation of the land was difficult, and attended with many evils," as Calvin maintains. Their only wish was to lay stress upon the difficulties and dangers connected with the conquest and maintenance of the land, on account of the tribes inhabiting and surrounding it: the land w…
הנפילים (lit., the fallen ones) — Anakim who were descendants of Shemchazai and Azael who fell from heaven in the generation of Enosh (cf. Targum Jonathan on Genesis 6:4 and Rashi on Niddah 61a s. v. בני אחיה).
וכן היינו בעיניהם AND SO WE MUST HAVE BEEN IN THEIR EYES — We heard them say one to another; “There are ants in the vineyards that look like human beings (Sotah 35a).
ענק — They were thus called because it seemed as if the sun was draped around their necks (מַעֲנִיקִים) because of their height (Sotah 34b).
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Spies bring back evil report — Spies bring back evil report
Grasshopper · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Holy Land · Twelve men sent to spy — Twelve men sent to spy
Majority And Minority Reports · Of the spies — Of the spies
Murmuring · Guilt of encouraging others in — Guilt of encouraging others in
Reports · .Of spies — .Of spies
Trouble · .When the spies brought their adverse report — .When the spies brought their adverse report
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
