[Their words] are various, and set against those [things] which were flung out either by the other explorers — or rather prevaricators and traitors — or by the people whom those [men] had befooled. First, concerning the goodness of the land which they so slandered: “The land which we went round” — or, as it is said in Hebrew, “which we passed through to explore,” [or] as in Greek, “which we surveyed” — “is very good.” I think one “very” has fallen out of the Latin. For both in the Hebrew and in the Greek it is doubled, that the highest and most intense goodness may be signified; and our Interpreter is otherwise wont to render such a phrase by superlatives. The second: “If the Lord be favorable, He will bring us into it.” Here I take the Greek and Latin particle “if” affirmatively, for “certainly” and “truly.” 1. because this speech is set over against that [slander] which those thrice-wretched prevaricators were spreading about God’s hatred and ill-will toward them. “The Lord hates us,” they say (Deut. 1, v. 27), “and therefore has led us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorite and destroy us.” But now, as if over against [this], Joshua and Caleb cry out: “The Lord Himself is surely favorable to us.” He truly loves us and wishes us well. For this is the force of the Hebrew word: “He is well pleased in us,” or, as it is otherwise wont to be said, “He has good pleasure in us.” And the Greek αἱρετίζει [“chooses”] seems to increase this benevolence of God — as if it were: “Truly the Lord chooses and loves us above all other peoples.” 2. because thus we come nearer to the Hebrew text, by not omitting in the following words the particle “and,” which is absent from our [Latin] but is in it: thus, “and He will bring us into it.” 3. because thus elsewhere the Hebrew אם [im], the Greek εἰ, and the Latin si [“if”] are taken — as [at] Num. 16 [14], v. 38 [23]; Ps. 58, v. 16; Ps. 62, v. 5; Job 22, v. 20; Prov. 3, v. 32, ch. 23, v. 18; Isa. 4, v. 4, ch. 29, v. 16; Gen. 47, v. 17. The third is opposed to what those same [men] were saying (ch. 13, v. 32 [31]): “We are by no means able to go up to this people.” But Joshua and Caleb say: “The Lord will bring us into it (the land), and deliver the ground flowing with milk and honey.” We do not say that we shall obtain the land by our own strength, but by the help and hand of God Himself — who promised [it], who is truthful and faithful, and, as has been said, benevolent toward the whole people. The fourth: “Be not rebellious against the Lord.” For that [saying] (v. 3) was open rebellion against Him: “Is it not better to return into Egypt?” The fifth: “Neither fear ye the people of this land” — even though it be painted to you as so strong, tall, warlike, and full of giants. For, as has been said and will soon be said again, that people must be subdued and exterminated by the Lord’s might, not by ours. The sixth is engaged in the comparison of that people with the Israelite [people]. For the fans [fanners] of this sedition had said, “the people is stronger than we, the children [of Israel]”; “Behold, being compared [to them] we seemed as locusts.” What, then, [say] Joshua and Caleb? “We can devour them like bread.” They teach the utmost ease in that which those [spies] were asserting to be most difficult, and indeed ἀδύνατον [impossible]. For what is easier than to eat bread? Nay rather, just as in the eating of bread there is not only ease—
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—but also usefulness and delight, so also in overcoming these enemies, and utterly destroying and consuming them. So elsewhere too some are said “to devour [others] like the food of bread” (Ps. 13, v. 4; Ps. 52, v. 5, and the like — which [is said] below, ch. 24, v. 8). In the Greek, however, there is here greater emphasis: “That people is κατάβρωμα ἡμῶν ἐστιν, is food for us”; and in the Hebrew, “they are our bread” — in that manner in which it is commonly said, “it is but one mouthful,” or “one single breakfast.” For thus I have heard the heretics speak, when the earlier time they came to besiege the Catholic [town of] Molsheim — from which, however, the matter unaccomplished, they were afterward forced to withdraw. The seventh: “All aid has departed from them.” In Hebrew, “Their shadow has departed from over them.” And this “shadow” I find expounded in five ways. For 1. to some the “shadow” is God; 2. to others, strength and boldness; 3. to others likewise, leaders and princes who have experience of war; 4. to some (in Abulensis, q. 12), Job himself, whose death fell about these times; 5. and lastly, to Oleaster it is any strength whatever — whether of soul, or body, or walls, or arms, or leaders, or of God Himself. And [this last] pleases [me]. 1. because “shadow” rightly signifies all these. For just as in summer, in places burning with heat (of which kind were those in which they then were), a shadow protects and defends us from the sun’s burnings, so [protection defends] from every incursion of enemies and other evils. Then, because in nearly all these ways “shadow” is somewhere taken [thus] (as Ps. 56; Gen. 2; Isa. 30, 36, and 49; Lam. 4; Ezek. 31). Third, because our Interpreter insinuated that general protection, when he rendered “all aid,” and the Seventy, ἀφέστηκε ὁ καιρὸς ἀπ’ αὐτῶν [“the [right] time has departed from them”]. Fourth, finally, because those particular [senses] which by others were called “shadow” are either not true, or less apt. For, by way of example, how was God the guardian and protector of those impious and detestable nations — especially at this time, when, as [in] Gen. 14, their iniquity was fulfilled? And leaders, and soldiers well enough trained, for those who were most ferocious — who (as we lately saw in the Amalekites) dared of their own accord to provoke Israel as it drew near, or to bar it from their borders, or to close their cities against it, and to make war with great forces, and whom, over several years and in great battles, [Israel] could scarcely at last restrain — who would suspect [these] to be lacking? And truly, what, I ask, has Job to do with the Canaanites? or how could he either have been able or willing to “protect” them and to darken them against the rays of the Israelites and of God? The eighth: “The Lord is with us.” This alone is enough against all the strength, walls, and giants of the Canaanites. “For if the Lord be for us, who [is] against us?” If the Lord [be] with us, our lot is the same as His. With Him [are] always countless legions of angels; with Him, even if those [angels] be absent, strength, power, and might always immense. Who would tremble with so great a companion, leader, and Commander? The ninth, then: “Fear ye not.” Here you may weigh what that is which the Priest so often prays, “The Lord [be] with you” — of which [see] on Ruth ch. 2. Here, however, it is not a prayer, but an assertion, affirming “that the Lord is with Israel”; and there is set down here that ineffable Name, and indeed prefixed — for which Isaiah both set [it] before and set [it] after (ch. 7) in “Emmanuel.”