Numbers 13:15 identifies Machi as the father of Geuel, the representative from the tribe of Gad among the twelve spies sent to scout Canaan. The name is brief and the etymology uncertain. Geuel brought back a negative report that contributed to Israel's failure of faith and the resulting forty-year wilderness wandering. Machi thus stands as a patronymic, his name remembered primarily because his son participated in that fateful reconnaissance mission. The Greek transliteration Machi confirms the basic consonantal text.