What Does Deuteronomy 1:22 Mean?
And you drew near to me, every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us, by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.THE KEY
The ascent begins as an act of digging: before they go up, they send people ahead to probe the land and bring back a word.
THE MEANING
You stand before a wider place and want both to enter it and to know its terrain. You send others ahead to uncover its features, then look for a word about the route and the places of arrival. The desire for a path and the desire to move forward coexist.
THE ROOT
יַחְפְּרוּ
yachperu
GROWS FROM
ח־פ־ר
ḥ-p-r
to dig; by extension, to search out by probing
“search out the land for us” in this verse is yachperu. The verb translated “search out” is also used for digging wells, as when Isaac digs again in Genesis 26:18. It lets the scouting carry an image of probing beneath the surface, uncovering the land before the ascent.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāphar: to dig or excavate
חָפַר
This is the verb used for searching out the land here and for digging wells in Genesis 26:18.
ḥōphēr: one who digs
חֹפֵר
The active form pictures the scouts as people working into what is not yet visible.
נִשְׁלְחָה
nishleḥah
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
sh-l-ḥ
to send forth, release, or stretch out
“Let us send” in this verse is nishleḥah. The people send a company ahead of themselves, releasing them forward to make the way legible. The same root can name both the act of sending and the state of being sent; here, the ones sent return with a word for those still waiting.
ALSO GROWS
shāliaḥ: an envoy, a person sent on another’s behalf
שָׁלִיחַ
The scouts are sent ahead to gather what the rest need to know.
Shiloach: “Sent”; the name of a pool whose waters restore sight
שִׁלֹחַ
The image of sent waters restoring sight echoes the scouts’ return with a report that lets the people see the route.
נַעֲלֶה־בָּהּ
naʿaleh-bāh
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
ʿ-l-h
to rise or ascend
“go up” in this verse is naʿaleh-bāh. The route they seek is a path of ascent, so entering the land is framed as going up, not simply traveling. The same root appears in עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, burnt offering), the offering that rises.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: to rise or go up
עָלָה
This is the verb in the phrase asking by what way they will ascend.
ʿōlāh: a burnt offering; that which rises
עֹלָה
The shared root carries ascent beyond direction, into the image of something rising.
THE PATTERN
A path into new ground is prepared by sending someone ahead to inspect, guard, or prepare the place of arrival.
And Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up this way southward, and climb into the mountain.Look, I send a messenger before you to guard you in the way and to bring you to the place I have established.After these things the Lord showed forth seventy others also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, where he himself was about to come.THE THREAD
And Isaac dug again the wells of the waters, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had plugged them after the death of Abraham, and he called them by the names his father had called them.The search verb here, חָפַר (ḥāphar, to dig), is repeated when Isaac digs the wells again. There, digging opens what has been stopped up; here, the land is probed before the ascent, as though the way forward is uncovered through attention to what lies beneath the surface.
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