1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
3 And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.
5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.
6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.
8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.
9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.
10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.
11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.
12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.
13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.
14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.
15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
16 These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.
17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:
18 And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;
19 And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;
20 And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.
21 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.
22 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23 And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.
24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.
25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.
26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
h.שלח לך אנשים SEND THOU MEN — Why is the section dealing with the spies put in juxtaposition with the section dealing with Miriam’s punishment? To show the grievousness of the spies’ sin: because she (Miriam) was punished on account of the slander which she uttered against her brother, and these sinners witnessed it and yet they did not take a lesson from her (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 5).
h.שלח לך SEND THEE (more lit., for thyself) — i.e. according to your own judgement: I do not command you, but if you wish to do so send them. — God said this because the Israelites came to Moses and said. “We will send men before us etc.”, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 1:22): “And you approached me, all of you, [saying, We will send men, etc.]”, and Moses took counsel with the Shechinah (the Lord), whereupon He said to them, I have told them long ago that it (the land) is good, as it is said, (Exodus 3:17): “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt … [unto a land flowing with milk and honey]”. By their lives! I swear that I will give them now an opportunity to fall into error through the statements of the spies, so that they should not come into possession of it (the land) (Sotah 34b; cf. also Rashi on Sotah 34b:8 מדעתך and Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 5).
h.'על פי ה With his consent; i.e. that He did not prevent him from doing so….
h.כלם אנשים ALL OF THEM WERE MEN — Wherever the term אנשים, “men”, is used in Scripture it is a term denoting worthiness. These men, [though they later sinned] but at that time [when they were appointed] they were worthy men.
h.ויקרא משה להושע וגו׳ AND MOSES CALLED HOSHEA [THE SON OF NUN JEHOSHUA] — By giving him this name יהושע which is a compound of יה and הושע “God may save”, he in effect prayed for him: “May God save you from the evil counsel of the spies” (Sotah 34b).
h.עלו זה בנגב GO UP THIS WAY SOUTHWARD — It (the South) was the worst part of the Land of Israel. He bid them spy this out first because such is the way of merchants: they show a prospective purchaser the inferior goods first, and afterwards they show the best (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 6).
h.את הארץ מה הוא AND SEE THE LAND; WHAT IT IS — There are countries which rear strong people and there are countries which rear weak people; there are such as produce a large population and there are such as produce a small population (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 6). החזק הוא הרפה WHETHER THEY ARE STRONG OR WEAK — He gave them a sign: if they live in open cities they are strong, since they evidently rely on their own strength, but if they live in fortified cities they are weak (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 6).
h.הבמחנים — The Targum rendering is: “whether in open places” i.e. in cities open and exposed — without a wall.
h.הטובה הוא WHETHER IT IS GOOD, through possessing springs and other good and healthy supplies of water.
h.היש בה עץ WHETHER THERE ARE TREES IN IT [OR NOT] — i.e. whether there is a righteous man amongst them who will protect them by his merits (cf. Bava Batra 15a).
h.בכורי ענבים — [AND THE DAYS WERE THE DAYS OF] THE FIRSTLING OF THE GRAPES — i.e. the days when the grapes were ripening at its early stage of growth.
h.ממדבר צן עד רחב לבא חמת [SO THEY WENT UP AND SEARCHED THE LAND] FROM THE DESERT OF ZIN UNTO REHOB, AS MEN COME TO HAMATH — They went along its (the Land’s) boundaries lengthwise and broadwise in the form of a gamma (the third letter of the Greek alphabet, Γ), viz., they went along the side which forms the southern boundary from its eastern corner to the western corner, just as Moses had bidden them, (v. 17) “Go up this way southwards”, i.e. the way of the south border from its eastern Point up to the Mediterranean Sea, for the Sea is the western boundary of the Land. From there they turned and went along the entire western boundary on the sea-coast up to the point whence one goes on to Hamath which is situated near Mount Hor in the North-western corner, as is set forth in the section dealing with the “boundaries of the Land” in the Sedrah אלה מסעי (Numbers 34:7—8).
h.ויבא עד חברון [AND THEY WENT UP BY THE SOUTH] AND HE CAME UNTO HEBRON — Caleb alone went there and prostrated himself on the graves of the Patriarchs, offering prayer that he might be helped not to give way to the enticement of his colleagues and join them in their counsel. You may see that it was Caleb who went there, for so indeed it (Scripture) states, (Deuteronomy 1:36) “[Save Caleb the son of Jephunnch, he shall see it] and unto him will I give the land upon which he hath trodden!” and it is written, (Judges 1:20) “And they gave Hebron unto Caleb” (Sotah 34b)
h.שבע שנים נבנתה [NOW HEBRON] WAS BUILT SEVEN YEARS [BEFORE ZOAN IN EGYPT] — Is it possible that Ham (who was the father of both Canaan and Mizraim; cf. Genesis 10:6) would have built Hebron for Canaan, his younger son, before he built Zoan for Mizraim, his elder son? But the meaning is that it was furnished (lit., built up) with all excellencies seven times better than Zoan. It (Scripture), by mentioning this, means to tell you the excellency of the Land of Israel. For you have no rockier ground in the Land of Israel than Hebron, — for this reason, indeed, they set it apart for a place of burial — and there is, on the other hand, no soil in any country as good as that of Egypt, for it states, (Genesis 13:10) “like the garden of the Lord, viz., like the Land of Egypt”. Now Zoan must have been the best part in the land Egypt since the residence of the kings was there, as it is said, (Jes. 30:4) “For in Zoan were its princes”, and yet Hebron was seven times better than it (Sotah 34b; Ketuvot 112a).
h.זמורה (lit., AND THEY CUT DOWN FROM THENCE) A BRANCH [AND ONE CLUSTER OF GRAPES] — i.e. a vine branch with a cluster of grapes hanging from it (not as the text might suggest, that they cut a branch and they cut also a cluster of grapes),
h.וישאהו במוט בשנים AND THEY BARE IT UPON A POLE BETWEEN TWO — From what is implied in the statement “And they bare it upon a pole”, do I not know that it was carried by two men”? why then does it add the word בשנים? It means, not as you assume, “by two men” but “upon two poles”. How was that done? Eight of the spies bore the cluster of grapes. Besides these, one spy took the fig and one the pomegranate, but Joshua and Caleb did not take anything (although all of them were bidden to do so; cf. v. 20), because the very essence of their (the other spies’) intention was only to bring an evil report: “Just as its fruit is extraordinary in size, so is its people extraordinary in size”. — Now if you wish to know how much was the burden of each of them, go and learn from the weight of the stones which they erected at Gilgal; for it is related (Joshua 4:5 and 20) that each man lifted by himself one stone from out of the Jordan on to his shoulder, and set it up at Gilgal; — and our Rabbis ascertained the weight of each stone to be forty Seahs, and it is an accepted fact that a load which a person can by himself lift up on to his shoulder is only the third of the load he can carry if people assist him in lifting it up (Sotah 34b).
h.וישבו מתור הארץ מקץ ארבעים יום AND THEY RETURNED FROM THE SEARCHING OF THE LAND AT THE END OF FORTY DAYS — But surely it was four hundred Parsangs (Persian miles) by four hundred Parsangs (Megillah 3a). And the journey of an average man is ten Parsangs a day (Pesachim 94a) and consequently it was a distance of forty days from east to west alone, whilst they traveled during that period along its length and breadth! But the fact is that it was manifest before the Holy One, blessed be He, that He would make a decree against them, “a day for a year” (cf. Numbers 14:34), therefore He shortened the road for them (i. e. He made them cover ground rapidly) (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 8).
h.וילכו ויבאו AND THEY WENT AND CAME [TO MOSES] — What is the force of “they went” (we have been informed that they had returned; why afterwards make any reference to their going on the journey)? It is intended to compare their “going” with their “coming“ to Moses! How was their coming to Moses? With an evil plan! So, too, was their “going” on the journey with an evil plan (i.e. that when they were travelling they had already resolved to bring back an evil report)! (Sotah 35a).
h.וישיבו אתם דבר AND THEY BROUGHT BACK WORD UNTO THEM — unto Moses and Aaron (for the Congregation is mentioned separately).
h.זבת חלב ודבש [WE CAME INTO THE LAND … AND SURELY] IT FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY — They stated this because no fabricated statement in which one does not say at least some true words at first can in the end be maintained (Sotah 35a).
h.בצרות is an expression for strength. Its rendering in the Targum is כריכן, a term for circular fortresses, for in the Aramaic language כריך means round.
h.עמלק יושב וגו׳ THE AMALEKITES ABIDE [IN THE LAND OF THE SOUTH] — Because they had already been “burnt” by Amalek, the spies mentioned him first in order to terrify them (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 9).
h.ועל ידי הירדן AND BY THE יד OF THE JORDAN — יד means what it literally implies: beside the Jordan. They meant: the Canaanites live on the bank of the Jordan and therefore you will be unable to cross it.
h.ויהס כלב AND CALEB STILLED [THE PEOPLE] — he caused all of them to be silent.
h.אל משה means he silenced them that they should hear what he was going to say about Moses. He cried aloud saying: “Is this the only thing the son of Amram has done to us?!” — One who heard him thus speaking believed that he was about to speak to his disparagement, and because they had something in their mind against Moses through the spies’ statements, all of them kept silent to hear his disparagement. He, however, said: “Did he not divide the Red Sea for us, and bring down the Manna for us, and collect the quails for us?!” (Sotah 35a).
h.עלה נעלה WE CAN INDEED GO UP — even to heaven, if he were to say “Make ladders and go up there”, we should listen to him because we would be successful in all his words (in all he bids us do) (Sotah 35a).
h.ויהס is an expression denoting silence. Similar is, (Zechariah 2:17) “Be silent, (הס) O all flesh”; (Amos 6:10) “Be silent (הס): for we may not mention [the name of the Lord]”. So is the manner of people: he who wishes to silence a group of men says “sst” (This sibilant sound is therefore used to command silence).
h.חזק הוא ממנו [FOR] THEY ARE STRONGER ממנו — They said this, — if this were at all possible (i.e. if one may be permitted to say so of God) — with reference to the Omnipresent (ממנו, stronger than “He”, they thus uttered blasphemy) (Sotah 35a; Arakhin 15a).
h.אכלת יושביה [A LAND] THAT EATETH UP THE INHABITANTS THEREOF — “In every place which we passed we found them (the inhabitants) burying their dead“. — But, as a matter of fact, the Holy One, blessed be He, did this (caused many deaths amongst them at that time, and so the Canaanites were engaged in burying their dead) for the best, in order to occupy them busily with their mourning so that they should pay no attention to these (the spies) (Sotah 35a).
h.אנשי מדות MEN OF GREAT STATURE (lit., of measure) — tall and high men, in speaking of whom one feels compelled to give their size, as is stated, for instance, with reference to Goliath (I Samuel 17:4): “his height was six cubits and a span”. Similar to this phrase are: (II Samuel 21:20) “a man of great stature”; (I Chronicles 11:23) “a man of great stature.
h.הנפילים (lit., the fallen ones) — Anakim who were descendants of Shemchazai and Azael who fell from heaven in the generation of Enosh (cf. Targum Jonathan on Genesis 6:4 and Rashi on Niddah 61a s. v. בני אחיה).
h.וכן היינו בעיניהם AND SO WE MUST HAVE BEEN IN THEIR EYES — We heard them say one to another; “There are ants in the vineyards that look like human beings (Sotah 35a).
h.ענק — They were thus called because it seemed as if the sun was draped around their necks (מַעֲנִיקִים) because of their height (Sotah 34b).