17 In sending them to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, Moses said to them, “Go up there in the Negeb, up into the highlands,
18 and see what kind of land it is and whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many.
19 Is the country in which they live good or bad? Are the towns in which they dwell open or fortified?
20 Is the soil fertile or barren, wooded or clear? And do your best to get some of the fruit of the land.” It was then the season for early grapes.
21 So they went up and reconnoitered the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as where Rehob adjoins Lebo-hamath.
22 Going up by way of the Negeb, they reached Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, descendants of the Anakim, were. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23 They also reached the Wadi Eshcol, where they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes on it, which two of them carried on a pole, as well as some pomegranates and figs.