The second year from the exodus was passing, and the second month, when, on the twentieth day of this [month], the Israelites, having set forth (Num. ch. 10), came into the wilderness of Paran (ibid., v. 13 [12]) — to that place where the seventy, of whom above, had been chosen, [the place] marked with the infamous name of “the graves of lust” [Kibroth-hattaavah] (ch. 11). Thence into another part called Hazeroth, where there was murmuring against Moses, on account of his wife, by Aaron and his sister Miriam (Num. ch. 12); [thence] they proceeded afterward into other parts (Num. 33), and at length into Cadesbarne (Deut. 1, v. 20). And here the people said to Moses (ibid., v. 22): “Let us send men who may view the land, and bring us word by what way we ought to go up, and to what cities [we should go].” Moses referred this demand of the people to the Lord, by whom it was thus answered him (Num. 13, v. 3 [2]): “Send men that may view the land of Chanaan, which I will give to the children of Israel, one of every tribe, of the rulers.” And so, approved by the Lord, that speech of the people pleased Moses (Deut. 1:23); and he did what the Lord had commanded, sending from the desert of Paran twelve prince-men, whose names, from the various tribes, are various (Num. 13, v. 5). But two of them concern the Book of Joshua: from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephone; from the tribe of Ephraim, Osee the son of Nun, whom (in the same [chapter], v. 18 [16]) they call Joshua, as was set forth above (ch. 2). They went, they explored the land, and, going on to the torrent of the cluster [Eshcol], they cut off a branch with its grape, which two men carried on a pole (v. 24 [23]). And the explorers of the land, having gone round the whole region after 40 days, returned to Moses and Aaron and to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, into the desert of Paran, which is at Cades (vv. 26–27 [26]); and speaking to them and to the whole multitude, they showed the fruits of the land, and (v. 28 and following [27]) praised that land for its richness and the goodness of its fruits, and commended it by the present testimony of the fruits they had brought. But the same [land] all of those same explorers — except Caleb and Joshua — utterly disparaged from other [reports], so much so that they took from the whole people any further mind of pressing on thither, [and] stirred up a grave sedition, so that the whole camp cried out that they would rather return to Egypt than unhappily go forward thither. “The tillers [inhabitants],” they said, “that land has most strong, and cities great and walled. We saw there the stock of Enac. We are in no way able to go up to this people, because it is stronger than we. The land which we have surveyed devours its inhabitants. The people whom we beheld are of tall stature. There we saw certain monsters of the sons of Enac, of the giant kind, in comparison of whom we seemed as locusts” (Num. 13:32–33). But on that same first day of the return, amid these [things], Caleb, restraining the murmur of the people which was rising against Moses, said: “Let us go up and possess the land, for we shall be able to obtain it” (v. 31 [30]). That whole evening, and the night that followed, were thus spent in murmuring and tumult (ch. 14, v. 2); and the same [was] renewed on the following day with great insolence of spirits. And then (v. 5) Moses and Aaron fell prone to the ground before all the multitude of the children of Israel. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephone, who had themselves also surveyed the land, rent their garments and spoke to all the multitude of the children of Israel: “The land which we went round is very good. If the Lord be favorable, He will bring us into it, and deliver the ground flowing with milk and honey. Be not rebellious against the Lord; neither fear ye the people of this land, for we are able to devour them as bread. All aid has departed from them. The Lord is with us: fear ye not.” And when all the multitude cried out, and wished to overwhelm them with stones, the glory of the Lord appeared over the tabernacle of the covenant, all the children of Israel seeing it (v. 10). Concerning whom the same Lord, stirred with most just grief and anger, having complained much to Moses and threatened against them, added (v. 23): “They shall not see [the land…]”
…”They shall not see the land, for which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any one of them that hath detracted me behold it. My servant Caleb, who being full of another spirit hath followed me, I will bring into this land which he hath gone round; and his seed shall possess it.” And again (v. 29): “All you who were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against me, shall not enter the land over which I lifted up my hand to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Joshua the son of Nun.” And the same is repeated (Num. 32, v. 10): “The Lord, being angry, swore, saying: If these men that came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and upward shall see the land which I promised with an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — and would not follow me — except Caleb [the son] of Jephone the Cenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: these have fulfilled my will.” But still more copiously all [this] is told (Deut. 1, from v. 26), where from the destruction of the rest are likewise excepted Caleb and Joshua, in these words (v. 35): “Not one of the men of this most wicked generation shall see the good land, which I promised with an oath to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephone. For he shall see it, and to him I will give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath followed the Lord. Neither shalt thou (O Moses) go in thither; but Joshua the son of Nun, thy minister, he shall enter in for thee. Exhort and strengthen him, and he shall divide the land by lot to Israel.” All these were done. And first, indeed, ten other explorers, on the day after that same return, were extinguished by a sudden death; then, in the course of time, all the murmurers perished. For of them [it is written] thus (Num. 14, v. 36): “So all the men whom Moses had sent to view the land, and who at their return had made the whole multitude to murmur against him, disparaging the land that it was naught, died and were struck in the sight of the Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephone lived, of all them that went to view the land.” And of the others (in the same book, ch. 26), when the catalogue of those who were to enter the land had been reckoned, it is added (v. 64): “Among whom there was not one of them that were numbered before by Moses and Aaron in the desert of Sinai. For the Lord had foretold that they should all die in the wilderness. And there remained not one of them, save Caleb the son of Jephone, and [Joshua] the son of Nun.” And these are the [things] which seem to pertain to Joshua concerning the explored land. And they are, as could appear, threefold: for either they were done before the journey, or on the journey, or afterward, when they had already returned. Concerning which these [questions] are asked.