We were in our own sight as grasshoppers

“We were in our own sight as grasshoppers” is the spies’ image for their perceived smallness before the inhabitants of Canaan. Spoken after a forty-day reconnaissance, it crystallizes a fearful interpretation of the land and helps propel the Israelites from hearing a report to rejecting the prospect of entering it.

The Report from Canaan

The spies returned to Moses, Aaron, and the congregation in the wilderness of Paran, bringing fruit from the land they had surveyed. They acknowledged its abundance, describing it as flowing with milk and honey, but emphasized the strength of its inhabitants and the size and fortification of its cities.

The report named the Anakim and the peoples living across the South, the mountains, and the coast. Caleb urged the congregation to go up and possess the land, saying they could overcome it. The other spies answered that they could not go up against its people, who were stronger than they were.

The Grasshopper Image and Its Consequences

The spies’ account escalated from an assessment of military obstacles into what the text calls an evil report. They described the land as one that consumed its inhabitants and its people as exceptionally large. The grasshopper comparison then makes their own estimate of the danger explicit: they saw themselves as small, and assumed that the inhabitants saw them the same way.

The congregation responded with weeping through the night and complaints against Moses and Aaron. The people wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness, feared that their families would be taken, and proposed choosing a leader to return to Egypt. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and insisted that the land was exceedingly good and that the people should not rebel or fear its inhabitants. The congregation threatened to stone them, until the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting.

A Recalled Image of Covenant Failure

The phrase belongs to the episode of the spies’ report, but the book’s later covenant speeches place that rebellion within a longer account of Israel’s obligations and failures. The covenant in the land of Moab is described as accompanying the covenant made at Horeb; Moses calls the assembled people, including children, wives, and resident strangers, to enter its oath, and extends its scope to those not present.

Moses recalls the people’s wilderness years and the defeat of Sihon and Og as grounds for observing the covenant. He warns that turning to other gods will bring the covenant’s curses, while the later promise of restoration joins return to the LORD with renewed obedience and gathering from dispersion. In this setting, the grasshopper image stands as a compact emblem of the earlier crisis: the land’s dangers were seen through the spies’ fearful report, and that report became a test of whether the people would trust the covenant’s promises.