I feel like a broken record at this point, because I know I’ve said the phrase “this is why I love blogging the Bible” at least a dozen times so far in this project.
But you know what? I’m gonna say it again. Verses like Numbers 13:22 is why I love blogging the Bible.
Not because there’s anything of particular interest in it. Quite the contrary, in fact. I’ve read this story of the spies moving through the land hundreds of times in my life.
And I can honestly say, every single one of those times, I have missed the tiny mention in Numbers 13:23 about Hebron being built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
(To be fair, its a parenthetical, which means that it’s a special note that Moses added into the story, so it’s not the primary point Moses wants to make, anyway. Ironically, just like this sentence. Notice how I’m using a parenthetical to talk about parentheticals. How very meta of me.)
To understand why this note is important, we first have to understand the importance of Zoan. By all accounts, this was a magnificent city. Located on the Nile Delta, archaeological evidence from Zoan shows amazing structures, tombs of royalty, and temples. At various points in Egypt’s history, it most likely even served as its capital.
The Psalms even mention Zoan specifically in Psalm 78:12, stating that God “wrought wonders before their [the Israelites’] fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.” Assuming this is talking about the twelve plagues, Zoan would be either be another name for the city of Tanis (or Ramses, as in Exodus 1:11), or very close to it.
Either way, the Psalmist alludes to the idea that Zoan was a major witness location for the people of Israel to see the powerful demonstration of an almighty God over an earthly empire.
So why does it matter that Hebron was built before Zoan? Because Moses wants the reader to know exactly what type of people the Israelites are going up against. These are not backwoods farmers that peddle moonshine and spit tobacco into buckets—the Canaanites are a highly civilized, heavily-fortified, advanced civilization.
In so many ways, the people that they are facing are just as formidable—if not more so—than the ones they left behind in Egypt. Because Zoan not only has cities, they also have giants (the sons of Anak).
The giants actually give even more weight to the situation. The sons of Anak, according to Numbers 13:33 are the descendants of the Nephilim, who existed in the pre-flood era (Genesis 6:4) and were “mighty men of old, men of renown.”
In other words, the Canaanites weren’t just strong, they were old-world strong. Their fighting capabilities were something of legend, and, when paired with a civilization that had centuries worth of progress, were arguably even stronger.
No wonder the Israelites were scared.
