Charles Ellicott Commentary Numbers 13:17

"And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way by the South, and go up into the hill-country:" — Numbers 13:17 (ASV)

Get you up this way southward.—Rather, by the Negeb, or south country . The southern part of Palestine was known by the name of the Negeb. It formed the transition from the desert to the more highly cultivated land and was more fitted for grazing than for agricultural purposes. (See Wilton’s The Negeb.)

Into the mountain.—The word which is here used commonly denotes the hill country, i.e., the mountainous part of Palestine, which was inhabited by the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites. It is called the mount of the Amorites in Deuteronomy 1:7, since the Amorites were the strongest of the Canaanite tribes. The same word is rendered the mountains in Numbers 13:29. The reference here, however, may be to the particular mountain which was nearest to the encampment of the Israelites .