John Calvin Commentary Numbers 13:32

"And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature." — Numbers 13:32 (ASV)

But the men that went up with him said. We see here, as in a mirror, how impiety gradually gathers audacity in evil. At the beginning, the authors of the rebellion were ambiguous in their expressions and satisfied themselves with obscure insinuations. Now they throw aside all shame and openly and acrimoniously oppose Caleb's speech, which was certainly nothing less than casting discredit on God’s words and treating His power as nothing.

God had promised to give the land to the Israelites; they deny that He will do so. He had given them many proofs that nothing is difficult for Him, yet they deny that His aid will be sufficient against the forces of their enemies. Moreover, they eventually break out into such impudence that in their falsehood they contradict themselves. They had confessed that the land was rich; they now declare that it consumes or devours its inhabitants, which is entirely the opposite. For this is equivalent to saying that the wretched men who cultivated it wore themselves out with their diligent labors, or, at any rate, that it was pestilential due to the harshness of its climate—either of which statements was utterly false.

The way some understand it, namely, that the giants⁵² in their violence committed indiscriminate slaughter, is without foundation. For this evil was not at all to be feared by the people after the extermination of the inhabitants. I do not doubt, then, that it means that the cultivation of the land was difficult and full of much inconvenience.

At the end of the last verse, where it is said, as grasshoppers, and so on, I think the words are inverted and should be connected this way: “As grasshoppers are despised in our eyes, so we were looked down upon by these giants on account of our small stature.”

⁵² Corn. a Lapide has the following note on verse 33; “נפלים, , nephilim, i.e., giants, who are called giants, who are called nephilim, that is, that is, falling, because they were so tall, that those who saw them fell from terror, or rather because they were so tall, that those who saw them fell from terror, or rather falling, i.e., making to fall, (the making to fall, (the Kal being put for the being put for the Hiphil,) laying prostrate and slaying other men in all directions, for these giants were savage men and truculent tyrants.”,) laying prostrate and slaying other men in all directions, for these giants were savage men and truculent tyrants.”