What Does Deuteronomy 1:22 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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
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
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 spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.THE THREAD
And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which 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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