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The Chieftains and `Iwaj ben `Inâq and what Happened With Them
As Al-Þa`labi mentioned: God promised Moses to make him live with his people in the holy lands, which was the lands of Shem, and there lived also the tyrants, or the giants, the descendants of `Imlâq ben Lâwi (Levi) ben Shem ben Noah [could not find any close record for this names chain], so God ordered Moses and his people to go the lands of Shem and said to him: O Moses I detined it as a living place for you so fight against the foes for I will bring victory to you, and take twelve chieftains from your folks, a chieftain from each tribe to take care of the tribe and take their covenants to do what they are ordered to do, so Moses then chose the chieftains, one chieftain from each tribe and made them the rulers of their tribes and so Moses went along with the Israelites..etc, and in this narration some exaggerations especially about `Iwaj ben `Inâq and about him being one of the giants in the lands of Shem [notice that in Torah, it is mentioned the name of Anak, a progenitor of giants, and the name is close to Arabic, and even closer when read in Hebrew, so the story might be about one of the children of Anak].
In brief what he mentioned is that when Moses walked with the Israelites towards the lands of Shem (Canaan) he sent spies before him to see the conditions and so he sent the twelve chieftains to spy for him so one man met them and he was `Iwaj ben `Inâq so he took them all and made them in his cloth and went to his wife and said to her: look to those people that claim that they want to fight against us, and he threw them between her hands and said: shall I crash them with my feet? But his wife said: no but release them to let them tell their people what they saw, and so he did. They say that `Iwaj lived for three thousands years until he was killed by Moses ben Amram (PUH), and they say that the height of Moses was ten cubits and the length of his staff was also ten cubits and he jumped as high as ten cubits and stroke `Iwaj with it (the staff) but he stroke only his foot's top and killed him and then some of his (Moses') people came and cutt of his head, and when he was killed he fell upon the Nile of Egypt so he was made as a bridge for a year. his mother was `Inâq, one of Adam's daughters, and she died during the life of her father Adam, and the narration of Al-Þa`labi is long about this matter, and he mentioned that because of the height of `Iwaj, he used to pick up a whale from the sea and raise it up with his hands and cook it by the sun and then eat it.
What they have mentioned about his height is unbelievable and it bears no fruit to discuss it. They say that during the Flood he came to Noah and said to him: carry me with you in the Ark but Noah refused to do so and that water covered everything on earth and yet it did not exceed his knees. As for the chieftains that Moses sent to the giants in the lands of Shem to spy on them, they got back in safe to him from their travel and they were absent for forty days and saw strange things and found out that there is no human can fight them (the giants) so they decided to keep what they saw of strange things as a secret and never tell any one of the Israelites or they will never go with Moses to such a thing, so they made a covenant with each other that they will keep it as a secret and not tell any one except of Moses and Aaron and they will decide what to do.
So they went along and they reached their folks and then got to Moses and told him about what they saw, but then they broke the covenant and everyone of them started to tell his tribe about what they saw and advises them not to go with Moses to fight the giants, except of Joshua ben Nun and Caleb ben Jephunneh as it was said, and he (Caleb) is the husband of Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron. When the folks head from the chieftains what was scary for them they raised their voices crying and saying: wish if we were dead in the lands of Egypt and never were out of it and God were not to let us into these lands so that our fortunes and our women would be a gain for them, then they got ready to get back to Egypt and denied to go with Moses and said to him that there are giant people there, so Moses said to them: the One that saved you and splitted the sea for you is able to make you win against them, but they denied to do so and decided to go back to Egypt, so then Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and said to them: go to the giants through the gate and when you go there you will win against them for God will fullfil his promise to you to let you win against them and we've seen them and tested them and they have weak hearts although their bodies are powerful, so do not be afraid of them and leave it all for God if you were believers. Then the Israelites desired to throw them with stones and refused their commands and said: O Moses, we will never go in there as long they are there so go with your Lord and fight for we are staying here, so then Moses turned to be so angry and prayed against them and said: My Lord! I have control of none but myself and my brother, so distinguish between us and the wrong-doing folk(Al-Mâ'idah:25), and he finished praying a cloud appeared on "Qobbat Al-Zomor" [maybe this phrase means "on the crowds"], and God inspired to Moses: until when they will not believe in you and the miracles? I shall destroy them all and make for you who is mighter and more in number, so then Moses regretted when he prayed against them and said: O Lord, if You destroyed them all people and nations would say that these people are killed because You could not bring them into the holy lands, and You are the Merciful that forgive the sins, so forgive them for their sins and do not destroy them, so then God said: I forgave them but I forbade them from going into the holy lands except of my servants Joshua and Caleb, and I shall keep them dwelling on earth for forty years, as much as the number of days they spent spying on the giants, and We shall flip their dead bodies in these deserts and their children will go into it, and that is God's saying: For this the land will surely be forbidden them for forty years that they will wander in the earth, bewildered. So grieve not over the wrongdoing folk(Al-Mâ'idah:26). They were six hundred thousand warriors added to them the families and women and children, so they were all during these forty years travelling hardly and when night comes they find themselves in the same position that they travelled from.
During that time, the ten chieftains that broke their covenant died, and they died suddenly in a disgusted way during the Wandering, and also died those who exceeded twenty years old of men except of Joshua and Caleb, and none of those who said: So go thou and thy Lord and fight! We will sit here(Al-Mâ'idah:24) did enter Jericho. So, when all died and the forty years passed and other generations of them appeared, they went to fight the giants and God made the victory for them and won against them and they lived there after the Wandering. After all these adversities God did say: O Children of Israel! Remember My favour wherewith I favoured you and how I preferred you to (all) creatures(Al-Baqarah:47).
Apparently, the holy phrase points out to the favours of God for the Israelites during the Wandering and before the Wandering and after the Wandering, for He saved them from the evil of the pharaoh and his deeds and got them out of his slavery and destroyed him with his people, and then after the Wandering He made them rule the lands, and we've talked a lot about the Wandering  for it has lot of stories about it, and to take the sermons out of what happened to the folks of this story, and all is for God the One, and no strength except by Him.

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