The Negev (lit. south) was the arid area of land to the south of Canaan that formed a transition between the desert to the south and the cultivated fields of Canaan to the north. Rainfall averages8-12inches per year in the Negev making it semi-arid. The hill country ( Numbers 13:17) refers to the more mountainous sections of Canaan generally here. Later Moses used the term more specifically of part of the territory God gave the tribes of Ephraim and Judah. The time of first-ripe grapes ( Numbers 13:20) would have been late July or early August. [source][source][source]