Richard McBee
Artist & Writer

The Return of the Spies 1984 24" x 30"
Relief Sculpture

Numbers: 13: 1-3; 13:31 – 14:4

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Send men, that they may spy the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a leader among them. 3 And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran; all those men were chiefs of the people of Israel.

31 But the men who went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied to the people of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the Nefilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nefilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight.

Numbers: 14

1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3 And why has the Lord brought us to this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

Used with permission Davka Corporation