The sacred historian hath here marked the outline of the spies route through the promised land. The map of that country shows that they went quite through it; for from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, is nearly south to north. Hebron, which they visited, is a memorable spot, rendered so by its being near to the cave of Abraham and Sarah, their great Ancestors. And Reader! it is worthy your observation, that as the LORD promised this land to Abraham and his seed for a possession, here the dead bodies of Abraham and Sarah lay, to keep, as it were possession of it, until the time of the promise arrived, for his living race fully to enjoy it. See Genesis 23:1; Genesis 25:9-10. I cannot help detaining the Reader just to remark to him, that the grapes of Eshcol were to the believing Israelites as a sample of the fruitfulness of the country, so they were a sweet type of the first fruits of the Spirit, on the minds of the LORD'S people now; an earnest, as it were, of what the soul will be fully satisfied with, when we come to receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of the soul. 2 Corinthians 5:5.
Related Commentaries of Numbers 13:21
Numbers 13:21-25
21 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.
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 seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23 And they came unto the brooka of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.
24 The place was called the brookb Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.
25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.