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Selected Verse: Numbers 13:32 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Nu 13:32	King James	And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
a land that eateth up the inhabitants--that is, an unhealthy climate and country. Jewish writers say that in the course of their travels they saw a great many funerals, vast numbers of the Canaanites being cut off at that time, in the providence of God, by a plague or the hornet (Jos 24:12). men of a great stature--This was evidently a false and exaggerated report, representing, from timidity or malicious artifice, what was true of a few as descriptive of the people generally.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

a land that eateth up the inhabitants--that is, an unhealthy climate and country. Jewish writers say that in the course of their travels they saw a great many funerals, vast numbers of the Canaanites being cut off at that time, in the providence of God, by a plague or the hornet (Jos 24:12).

men of a great stature--This was evidently a false and exaggerated report, representing, from timidity or malicious artifice, what was true of a few as descriptive of the people generally.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
A land that eateth up ... - i. e. it is a land which from its position is exposed to incessant attacks from one quarter and another, and so its occupants must be always armed and watchful.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

A land that eateth up ... - i. e. it is a land which from its position is exposed to incessant attacks from one quarter and another, and so its occupants must be always armed and watchful.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Thus they spread an evil report of the land among the Israelites, by exaggerating the difficulties of the conquest in their unbelieving despair, and describing Canaan as a land which "ate up its inhabitants." Their meaning certainly was not "that the wretched inhabitants were worn out by the laborious task of cultivating it, or that the land was pestilential on account of the inclemency of the weather, or that the cultivation of the land was difficult, and attended with many evils," as Calvin maintains. Their only wish was to lay stress upon the difficulties and dangers connected with the conquest and maintenance of the land, on account of the tribes inhabiting and surrounding it: the land was an apple of discord, because of its fruitfulness and situation; and as the different nations strove for its possession, its inhabitants wasted away (Cler., Ros., O. v. Gerlach). The people, they added, are מדּות אנשׁי, "men of measures," i.e., of tall stature (cf. Isa 45:14), "and there we saw the Nephilim, i.e., primeval tyrants (see at Gen 6:4), Anak's sons, giants of Nephilim, and we seemed to ourselves and to them as small as grasshoppers."

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

Thus they spread an evil report of the land among the Israelites, by exaggerating the difficulties of the conquest in their unbelieving despair, and describing Canaan as a land which "ate up its inhabitants." Their meaning certainly was not "that the wretched inhabitants were worn out by the laborious task of cultivating it, or that the land was pestilential on account of the inclemency of the weather, or that the cultivation of the land was difficult, and attended with many evils," as Calvin maintains. Their only wish was to lay stress upon the difficulties and dangers connected with the conquest and maintenance of the land, on account of the tribes inhabiting and surrounding it: the land was an apple of discord, because of its fruitfulness and situation; and as the different nations strove for its possession, its inhabitants wasted away (Cler., Ros., O. v. Gerlach). The people, they added, are מדּות אנשׁי, "men of measures," i.e., of tall stature (cf. Isa 45:14), "and there we saw the Nephilim, i.e., primeval tyrants (see at Gen 6:4), Anak's sons, giants of Nephilim, and we seemed to ourselves and to them as small as grasshoppers."

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Eateth up its inhabitants - Not so much by civil wars, for that was likely to make their conquest more easy; but rather by the unwholesomeness of the air and place, which they guessed from the many funerals, which, as some Hebrew writers, not without probability affirm, they observed in their travels through it: though that came to pass from another cause, even from the singular providence of God, which, to facilitate the Israelites conquest, cut off vast numbers of the Canaanites either by a plague, or by the hornet sent before them, as is expressed, Jos 24:12.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]

Eateth up its inhabitants - Not so much by civil wars, for that was likely to make their conquest more easy; but rather by the unwholesomeness of the air and place, which they guessed from the many funerals, which, as some Hebrew writers, not without probability affirm, they observed in their travels through it: though that came to pass from another cause, even from the singular providence of God, which, to facilitate the Israelites conquest, cut off vast numbers of the Canaanites either by a plague, or by the hornet sent before them, as is expressed, Jos 24:12.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Men of a great stature - אנשי מדות anshey middoth, men of measures - two men's height; i. e., exceedingly tall men.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

Men of a great stature - אנשי מדות anshey middoth, men of measures - two men's height; i. e., exceedingly tall men.

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