Get you up this way southward. — Rather, by the Negeb, or south country (comp. Numbers 13:22). The southern part of Palestine was known by the name of the Negeb. It formed the transition from the desert to the more highly cultivated land, and was more fitted for grazing than for agricultural purposes. (See Wilton’s The Negeb.)
Into the mountain. — The word which is here used commonly denotes the hill country, i.e., the mountainous part of Palestine, which was inhabited by the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites. It is called “the mount of the Amorites” in Deuteronomy 1:7, inasmuch as the Amorites were the strongest of the Canaanite tribes. The same word is rendered “the mountains” in Numbers 13:29. The reference here, however, may be to the particular mountain which was nearest to the encampment of the Israelites (see Numbers 14:40).