The twelve spies and the refusal at Kadesh
Numbers 13–14; Deuteronomy 1:19–46; Hebrews 3:16–19
Ten of the twelve spies said Canaan couldn't be taken; the people rebelled, and God sentenced that generation to forty years in the wilderness.
Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let’s go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it!”
Numbers 13:30 (World English Bible)
The spies spent forty days in Canaan and brought back a cluster of grapes so large two men carried it on a pole. But ten said the cities were fortified and the people were giants. Only Caleb and Joshua urged the people to trust God.
The people wept all night and talked of choosing a leader to take them back to Egypt. God declared that everyone twenty and older, except Caleb and Joshua, would die in the wilderness: a year for each day of the spying. Hebrews says they couldn't enter because of unbelief (3:19).
Places
JordanCanaanHebronNegebGreat SeaMount SeirAmalekKadesh-barneaLebo-hamathHormahParanZinValley of EshcolWay of the Red SeaRehob
Dating notes
Ussher sends the spies out at the time of the first ripe grapes (Numbers 13:20), in the fifth month of the second year, 1490 BC by the reckoning used here. Caleb was 40 (Joshua 14:7).