Numbers 13:27-29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

They told him In the audience of the people. The Amalekites in the south Where we are to enter the land; and they who were so fierce against us that they came into the wilderness to fight with us, will, without doubt, oppose us when we come close by their land, the rather, to revenge themselves for their former loss. Therefore they mention them, though they were not Canaanites. In the mountains In the mountainous country, in the south-east part of the land, so that you cannot enter there without great difficulty, both because of the noted strength and valour of those people, and because of the advantage they have from the mountains. By the sea Not the mid-land sea, which is commonly understood by that expression, but the Salt or Dead sea; as appears, 1st, Because it is that sea which is next to Jordan; 2d, Because the Canaanites dwelt principally in those parts, and not near the mid-land sea. So these guard the entrance on the east side, as the others do on the south.

Numbers 13:27-29

27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.