John Gill Commentary Numbers 13:27

John Gill Commentary

Numbers 13:27

1697–1771
Reformed Baptist
John Gill
John Gill

John Gill Commentary

Numbers 13:27

1697–1771
Reformed Baptist
SCRIPTURE

"And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us; and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." — Numbers 13:27 (ASV)

And they told him
Moses, who was the chief ruler whom they addressed, and to whom they directed their speech:

and said, we came unto the land where you sent us ;
the land of Canaan, which they were sent by Moses to spy; this was said by ten of them or by one of them as their mouth; for Caleb and Joshua did not join with them in the following account, as appears from (Numbers 13:30) ;

and surely it flows with milk and honey ;
they own that the land answered to the description which the Lord had given of it when it was promised them by him, (Exodus 3:8) ;

and this [is] the fruit of it ;
pointing to the bunch of grapes, the pomegranates and figs; not that these were a proof of its flowing with milk and honey, at least in a literal sense, but of the goodness and fruitfulness of the land: though the luxury of Bacchus, the god of wine, is by the poet F13 described, not only by a fountain of wine, but by rivers of milk and flows of honey.


FOOTNOTES:

  • F13: "Vinique fontem" Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 19.