Then all of you came near me: or, “Then all of you came to me” (Contemporary English Version). Instead of the word Then, The New English Bible [New English Bible], Revised English Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch begin with “But,” which better suits the context. Instead of immediately obeying the order to invade the land and take possession of it, the Israelites propose a delaying course of action; this may be seen as the first indication of their lack of faith.

Let us send men before us: in Num 13.1-2 it is God who orders that the twelve spies be sent out. Contemporary English Version prefaces this sentence with “Before we go into the land, let’s send….” This may be helpful.

That they may explore the land for us, and bring us word again: New Revised Standard Version “bring back a report to us” is an improvement over the literal rendering “bring us word again.” A simpler way of expressing this is “and can tell us about….”

Of the way by which we must go up: the purpose of the spies’ exploration of the land would be to decide which would be the best route to take in their invasion of the land, and to find out how strong and heavily defended were the cities that they would have to conquer. Again, go up does not necessarily mean to go to a higher elevation (see verse 21).

The cities into which …: in today’s world cities are usually much larger than most of the communities named in the Bible, and “towns” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) is a more accurate term. For a comment on the translation of “towns,” see verse 1.

Into which we shall come: the translator must be aware of the point of view of the narrative. As they attacked the cities, the Israelites were “going” into them; from the point of view of the cities they would be “coming” into them. In most languages “going” will be the more natural point of view. However, in certain languages all directional information depends on where the speaker is located. In such a case translators should generally place the writer of Deuteronomy in the area of Canaan.

Contemporary English Version has a helpful alternative model for this verse:

• Then all of you came to me and said, “Before we go into the land, let’s send some men to explore it. When they come back, they can tell us about the towns we will find and what roads we should take to get there.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .