Numbers 13:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Send thou men, that, &c.— It appears from Deuteronomy 1:22; Deuteronomy 9:23 that this motion to search the land of Canaan was made by the unbelieving multitude. Being come near to the borders of the land, God ordered them by Moses to go up, and take possession of it; but, forgetting the power and promises of God, the people were afraid to venture upon it, till some were sent to bring them intelligence what kind of country it was, and what sort of people they had to deal with; Moses, therefore, by divine direction, complies with the importunities of the people, and chooses a proper officer out of each tribe for that purpose: every one a ruler among them; for it was fit that men of authority and prudence should be sent, of ability to execute the trust, and of credit to be believed: their names shew plainly that they were not the persons, who, in the first chapter of this book, are called princes of the tribes: they must have been rulers only of some part, not of a whole tribe; perhaps some of those who were rulers of thousands, or rulers of hundreds; called heads of the people, Exodus 18:25. They were sent, according to the opinion of the Jews and St. Jerome, in the month Ab, which was the fifth of the second year; at the beginning of the month, which falls upon the nineteenth day of our July; see Bishop Patrick. We should just observe, that in many versions of the Bible, this chapter begins with the last verse of the foregoing chapter.