Exploring Canaan

13 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Send some men to explore^(A) the land of Canaan,^(B) which I am giving to the Israelites.^(C) From each ancestral tribe^(D) send one of its leaders.”

²⁵ At the end of forty days^(A) they returned from exploring the land.^(B)

Report on the Exploration

²⁶ They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh^(C) in the Desert of Paran.^(D) There they reported to them^(E) and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.^{(F) 27} They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!^(G) Here is its fruit.^{(H) 28} But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.^(I) We even saw descendants of Anak^(J) there.^{(K) 29} The Amalekites^(L) live in the Negev; the Hittites,^(M) Jebusites^(N) and Amorites^(O) live in the hill country;^(P) and the Canaanites^(Q) live near the sea and along the Jordan.^(R)”

³⁰ Then Caleb^(S) silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”^{(T) 32} And they spread among the Israelites a bad report^(U) about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours^(V) those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.^{(W) 33} We saw the Nephilim^(X) there (the descendants of Anak^(Y) come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers^(Z) in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners^(A)

¹³ Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him,^(B) and he began to teach them. ¹⁴ As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,”^(C) Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

¹⁵ While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees^(D) saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”^(E)

¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”^(F)