SEV Biblia, Chapter 13:23
Y llegaron hasta el arroyo de Escol, y de allí cortaron un sarmiento con un racimo de uvas, el cual trajeron dos en una vara, y de las granadas y de los higos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Numbers 13:23
Verse 23. They bare it between two upon a staff] It would be very easy to produce a great number of witnesses to prove that grapes in the promised land, and indeed in various other hot countries, grow to a prodigious size. By Calmet, Scheuchzer, and Harmer, this subject has been exhausted, and to these I may refer the reader. Pliny mentions bunches of grapes in Africa each of which was larger than an infant. Radzvil saw at Rhodes bunches of grapes three quarters of an ell in length, each grape as large as a plum. Dandini saw grapes of this size at Mount Libanus; and Paul Lucas mentions some bunches which he saw at Damascus that weighed above forty-five pounds. From the most authentic accounts the Egyptian grape is very small, and this being the only one with which the Israelites were acquainted, the great size of the grapes of Hebron would appear still more extraordinary. I myself once cut down a bunch of grapes nearly twenty pounds in weight. Those who live in cold climates can scarcely have any conception to what perfection both grapes and other fruits grow in climates that are warm, and where the soil is suitable to them. From what is mentioned ver. 20, Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes, it is very probable that the spies received their orders about the beginning of August, and returned about the middle of September, as in those countries grapes, pomegranates, and figs, are ripe about this time; see Harmer, vol. i., p. 108-110. At Sheeraz, in Persia, I find from a MS. journal, that the small white grape, askerie, came into season August 6; and pomegranates September 6; and the large red grape, sahibi, September 10.
The spies' carrying the bunch of grapes on a staff between two men was probably not rendered necessary by the size of the bunch or cluster; but to preserve it from being bruised, that the Israelites might have a fair specimen of the fruit As Joshua and Caleb were the only persons who gave a favourable account of the land, it is most likely that they were the persons who had gathered these fruits, and who brought them to the Israelitish camp. And it is likely they were gathered as short a time as possible before their return, that they might not be injured by the length of the time they had been separated from their respective trees.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 23. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol , etc.] Or “valley of Eshcol” f159 , which is here so called by anticipation from the following circumstance; and perhaps had not this name given it, until the children of Israel were possessed of the land, and then they called it so, in memory of what was done here at this time; it was not far from Hebron, as may be concluded from thence; and so Jerom, relating the travels of Paula in those parts, says f160 , she came from Betzur to Eshcol, where having seen the little cells of Sarah, the cradle of Isaac, and the traces of the oak of Abraham, under which he saw the day of Christ, and was glad, rising up from thence, she went up to Hebron; which shows this Eshcol to be near Hebron, and to lie low, and was a valley; (see Deuteronomy 1:24); and cut down from thence a branch, with one cluster of grapes ; in this valley was a vineyard, or at least a vine tree, on which they observed one cluster, which perhaps was of an uncommon size, as it seems by what follows, and they cut down the branch, and that with it: and they bare it between two upon a staff ; it was so big; and which was not done only for the ease of carrying it, but that it might not have any of its grapes squeezed, bruised, and broken off, but that they might carry it entire and whole for the Israelites to behold: these two men were probably Caleb and Joshua; though Jarchi says they carried nothing, which is more than he could say with certainty. Some historians report very surprising things of the size of vines, and the largeness of their clusters, which, when observed, this account will not at all seem incredible. Strabo says f161 , it is reported, that in Hyrcania, a vine produced a firkin of wine, and, the trunk of a vine was so large, that it was as much as two men could grasp with both arms, and bore clusters of two cubits long f162 ; the same he says of the size of vines in Mauritania, and of their clusters being a cubit long; and of others in Carmania being two cubits long, as before f164 : it is reported of the Indian fig tree, that it sometimes has an hundred figs more or less on a branch, and all in a cluster like grapes; and some of the clusters are sometimes so large as to be carried by two men on a staff f165 , as here; and some have thought, that it is the fruit here meant; but this is expressly called a cluster of grapes. About half a mile from Eshcol, as Adrichomius says, was the brook or valley of Sorek, which was famous for vines; and it is affirmed by many writers and travellers, that to this day there are vines in that place, which produce clusters of twenty five pounds weight and more; and that in Lebanon, and other parts of Syria, the kernels of grapes are as big as a man’s thumb f167 . Leo Africanus speaks of grapes in some parts of Africa somewhat red, which, from their size, are called hens’ eggs: and the Talmudists are extravagant, and beyond all belief, in the account they give of the vines in the land of Canaan, and of the clusters of them, and the quantity of wine they had from them; and of this cluster they suppose f170 , that the “two” spoken of are not to be understood of men, but of bars or staves; and that this cluster was carried by eight, four at the four ends of the two staves, and that there were, besides, two staves or bars that went across, at the ends of which were four more men, who carried the cluster hanging in the middle; a figure of which Wagenseil has given us: but Philo the Jew has given a better account of it, and more agreeable to the Scripture, as that it was put upon a staff, and hung at the middle of it, the ends of which were laid on the shoulders of two young men, who carried it; though he adds, that such was the weight of it, that these were relieved by others in succession: and [they brought] of the pomegranates, and of the figs ; that is, others of them did; which seems to favour the notion that they were in a body, and that there were more than two together at this place; but even these two might be able to bring some of this sort of fruit along with them, as well as bear the cluster of grapes; besides, the text does not oblige us to understand it of the same persons in the same place.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 21-25 - The searchers of the land brought a bunch of grapes with them, an other fruits, as proofs of the goodness of the country; which was to Israel both the earnest and the specimen of all the fruits of Canaan Such are the present comforts we have in communion with God, foretaste of the fulness of joy we expect in the heavenly Canaan. We may see by them what heaven is.
Original Hebrew
ויבאו 935 עד 5704 נחל 5158 אשׁכל 812 ויכרתו 3772 משׁם 8033 זמורה 2156 ואשׁכול 811 ענבים 6025 אחד 259 וישׂאהו 5375 במוט 4132 בשׁנים 8147 ומן 4480 הרמנים 7416 ומן 4480 התאנים׃ 8384
