And came unto Hebron. This and the following details of their journey are appended to the general statement of Numbers 13:21 in that inartificial style of narrative still common in the East. On the name Hebron, and the perplexities which it causes, see on Genesis 13:18; Genesis 23:2.
Where Amman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. יְלִידֵי הָעֲנָק "Anak's progeny." Septuagint, γενεαὶ ἐνάχ, means simply "descendants of Anak." The Beni-Anak (Beni-Anakim in Deuteronomy 1:28; Anakim in Deuteronomy 2:10, &c.
) were a tribe whose remote and perhaps legendary ancestor was Anak son of Arba (see on Joshua 14:15). These three chiefs of the Beni-Anak are said to have been expelled from Hebron fifty years later by Caleb (Joshua 15:14; 1:20).
The gigantic size which the Anakim shared with the Emim and Rephaim, other remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants, may have been accompanied by remarkable longevity; or they may have been quite young at the time of this visit; or, finally, they may not have been individuals at all, but families or clans.
Now Hebron was built seven years before Zean in Egypt. Hebron was in existence at the time of Abraham. Zoan was Tanis, near the mouth of the eastern branch of the Nile (see on Psalms 78:12, Psalms 78:43).
If it be true that the Pharaoh of the exodus had his royal residence at Zoan, Moses may have had access to the archives of the city, or he may have learnt the date of its foundation from the priests who gave him his Egyptian education.
That there was any real connection between the two places is extremely problematical, nor is it possible to give any reason for the abrupt insertion here of a fragment of history so minute and in itself so unimportant.
There is, however, no one but Moses to whom the statement can with any sort of likelihood be traced; a later writer could have had no authority for making the statement, and no possible reason for inventing it.