שלח לך אנשים, do not allow the selection of these men to be made by the people themselves! We know from Deuteronomy 1,22 that the initiative of sending out spies came from the people and that Moses was put under pressure to do this. G’d was cautioning Moses that by allowing the people to select the spies themselves, that if they chose unsuitable candidates and they came back with a faulty report, the people would blame G’d for what was wrong with the country instead of the inadequate ability of the spies to correctly evaluate what they had seen. Once the blame would be laid at G’d’s doorstep it would be impossible to do teshuvah. In the event, the people did teshuvah when they said “we have sinned against You,” as reported in Deuteronomy 1,41 As far as the spies whom Moses sent out were concerned, while it is true that they were guilty in bringing about the refusal of the people to undertake the campaign to conquer the land, and all this was due to a lack of faith in G’d, they did report truthfully on the excellence of the land and they brought back with them proof of it. (compare verse 27) where they are quoted as having said that not only was the land good, but it was a land flowing with milk and honey; In Deuteronomy 1,25 Moses also agrees that they had reported on the excellence of the land. Their fault lay in their asserting that the country could not be conquered by the Jewish people. Once the people realised that the problem had been their own lack of faith and not any shortcoming they had ascribed to G’d, the way was paved for repentance to become acceptable. They immediately reversed themselves, offering to ascend and to participate in the conquest of the land. (compare verse 41 in our chapter) They prayed and cried to G’d regarding their sin, but G’d did not accept their prayer. Their sin had consisted of a desecration of the Lord’s name in public, something that cannot be atoned for except after the death of the guilty party. G’d had already alluded to this in Exodus 32,34 in connection with the sin of the golden calf when He had said וביום פקדי ופקדתי, “on the day when I mete out justice (literally “remember” i.e. review the deceased deeds, etc.) I will also judge, etc.” In other words, this atonement is reserved for people only posthumously.

(2) EACH ONE A CHIEFTAIN AMONG THEM. Each one the best among his tribe in recognizing the nature of the land.

כלם אנשים, men of valour. The word איש occurs in the sense of “man of valour” both in Samuel I 26,15 and in Kings I 2,2.

ואלה שמותם, each one was a distinguished person, known as such. They have been listed in order of their seniority, seeing that other than that they were equal in rank, especially in their qualifications for this mission. The reason I believe that this is the reason for the order in which they have been listed is that the list neither corresponds to the seniority of the tribes nor to the order in which the tribes were encamped.

ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, the Torah means that this man was known as a man of valour by the name of Hosheah among the members of his tribe. The fact that he has been referred to as “Joshua” already in Numbers 11,28 is because in his capacity as Moses’ personal valet Moses had changed his name in the form of a prayer asking that he be the instrument of his own salvation and that of others.

!עלו זה בנגב. Moses wanted them to commence their mission from the very spot the Israelites found themselves in at this time, i.e. in the south of the land of Canaan. He considered that at this point entry into the land of Canaan would not present any difficulty and they would not have to travel around the country inn order to enter from a more distant location.

וראיתם את הארץ מה היא. If it is mostly populated in open cities or walled cities, like fortresses.

ואת העם היושב עליה, to find out if the ecological conditions favoured successful settlement in cities. In other words, if sick people would be referred by their physicians to such cities and to such a climate to help them regain their health. They would judge this by the appearance of the inhabitants of such cities; if they appeared healthy, strong, of good posture, etc. They would also observe if the people were numerous, had large families, or if somehow they were few in numbers. Large numbers of people, and people looking strong and fit, would indicate that the climate was good and favoured large-scale settlement.

הטובה היא, was the water supply plentiful and not contaminated. Moses had stressed in Deuteronomy 8,7 that G’d was bringing the people to a location which was “good” in the sense that it possessed brooks and rivers with pure water.

הבמחנים, if they lived in open cities, a sign that they felt secure, not expecting any war,

אם במבצרים, or in walled, fortified towns, suggesting that the inhabitants were afraid of being invaded. Compare Devorah’s song in Judges 5,7 where she bemoans the fact that her people had ceased to live in open cities.

השמנה היא, does it possess riches, surpluses, as Moses said in Deuteronomy 8,9 לא במסכנות תאכל בה לחם, “where you will eat bread without having to stint.”

היש בה עץ, are there fruit trees, such as grape vines, fig trees, pomegranate trees and olive trees.

והתחזקתם ולקחתם מפרי הארץ, do not be afraid that the local inhabitants will notice your taking some produce and will attack you on account of that.

והימים ימי בכורי ענבים, the fruit for which the land is famous had not even fully ripened as yet as it was still early in the season. Even so, what they would see would be enough to convince them of the excellence of the land.

על אודות האשכול אשר כרתו משם בני ישראל. The Canaanites were surprised about these Israelites who considered this cluster of grapes as something so extraordinary that they cut it off the vine and transported it all the way to their people without bothering to eat it. They were well aware that their country produced far bigger clusters of grapes than the one the spies had taken. The name נחל אשכול reflects the Canaanites’ amazement and who named the location thus.

אל מדבר פארן קדשה, to the part of the desert of Paran facing Kadesh Barnea.

וגם זבת חלב ודבש היא; not only is it a good land, but it deserves the superlative “a land flowing with milk and honey.” The land yields its bounty without man having to engage in backbreaking labour. It produces abundantly in all areas of agriculture and cattle breeding.

אפס כי עז העם, it is impossible to conquer the land since we cannot defeat its people. Not only are the people tough, but the cities are fortified. The inhabitants of the land, the Amelakites hate us fiercely. They will engage in a preemptive war against us so that we should not even get near their borders.

ויהס כלב את העם, he silenced the people who had begun to raise their voices, as they did afterwards when the Torah reports in 14,1 “all the people raised their voices and the cried the whole night.”

אל משה, so that Moses would have a chance to reply. Perhaps Moses replied with the words he referred to in Deuteronomy 1,29: “I told you not to be scared and not to be afraid of the inhabitants of that land, etc.”

Calev reinforced Moses’ words by saying: עלה נעלה, it is appropriate for us to ascend for they will not be able to stand up against us to prevent us from progressing;

וירשנו אותו כי יכול נוכל לו, for as soon as we shall ascend in that direction they will flee from us seeing that these inhabitants of Canaan have already a defeatist attitude toward us.

לא נוכל לעלות, for they will stand up against us and will prevent us from making progress just as happened after the sin when the Torah describes the Amalekites (described as Canaanites) descending and inflicting casualties in 14,45.

ארץ אוכלת יושביה, even though the people living there are strong, this is not a compliment to the land; rather it means that it is only due to their exceptionally hardy constitution that they were able to survive in that land. Ordinary people would die there because the climate is so hard to take.

בני ענק, descended paternally from giants

מן הנפילים, maternally descended from those giants.

וכן היינו בעיניהם, like grasshoppers, or even less significant. They did not bother to harm us as they did not think we represented a threat to them.