Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding those who did not go to Canaan.
Yet the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large: See verses 18-19. The Hebrew expression for the connector Yet is quite emphatic, so it better rendered “However, on the other hand.” Yet and “But” (Good News Translation) are not as forceful as the Hebrew text here. The Hebrew word order also puts focus on the adjective strong, for this was the main concern and fear of the majority of the spies.
And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there: Besides renders another occurrence of the Hebrew particle gam. Here it focuses on a negative feature of the land, so Good News Translation renders and besides as “Even worse.” For the descendants of Anak, see verse 22. For the reasons mentioned there, it is better to render this phrase as “the descendants of the giants” (Good News Translation).
Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .