אֵיכָ֥ה אֶשָּׂ֖א לְבַדִּ֑י טָרְחֲכֶ֥ם וּמַֽשַּׂאֲכֶ֖ם וְרִֽיבְכֶֽם׃
How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering!
וריבכם בעניני הדין ותביעת ממון. וזה ספר להזכירם את פשעם שאע''פ שבשר אותם שיכנסו לארץ בלתי שום מלחמה שהיה ענינה רב התועלת והכבוד יותר מכל נכסיהם ועניניהם במדבר לא נמנעו מלעורר דברי ריבות איש על חבירו באופן שהוצרך למנות מדרגות שופטים עד שכל עשרה מהם היו צריכים לדיין פרטי ואין זה כי אם מרוע לב:
וריבכם, and your mutual financial claims upon one another. He reminded them of all this in order that they should remember their sins. He hoped that the people repented their past conduct honestly, for in the past, in spite of Moses having told them that they would take over the land of Canaan without even having to fight for it, something that should have been their major concern seeing that they were in the desert. Rather than focusing on their major problem, how to get out of the desert into the promised land, they had wasted their time and efforts in the pursuit of petty concerns, undermining their inter-personal relationships in the process. Due to this interminable quarreling, Moses had been forced to appoint a large number of judges that had to exert authority over the individuals down to every 10 people requiring at least one such judge. This could only have been due to some character weakness, some pre-disposition to be quarrelsome.
וַתִּקְרְב֣וּן אֵלַי֮ כֻּלְּכֶם֒ וַתֹּאמְר֗וּ נִשְׁלְחָ֤ה אֲנָשִׁים֙ לְפָנֵ֔ינוּ וְיַחְפְּרוּ־לָ֖נוּ אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְיָשִׁ֤בוּ אֹתָ֙נוּ֙ דָּבָ֔ר אֶת־הַדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נַעֲלֶה־בָּ֔הּ וְאֵת֙ הֶֽעָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָבֹ֖א אֲלֵיהֶֽן׃
Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to.”
ותקרבון אלי כולכם אע''פ שהיו לכם ראשים ממונים עליכם לצרכי רכים באתם כלכם:
ותקרבון אלי כלכם, even though you had leaders appointed to act as your representatives, appointed to concern themselves with your communal concerns, you all ganged up on me.
נשלחה אנשים נבחר אנחנו אנשים ונשלח ולזה לא הסכים האל יתעלה ואמר למשה שלח לך שיבחר הוא האנשים ולא הם פן יבחרו הדיוטות שיוסיפו להרע ובכן בחר משה כלם אנשים ובתוכם יהושע וכלב וגם הרשעים מהם אע''פ שהרשיעו לומר שאי אפשר לכבשה לא העיזו פניהם לומר שהארץ רעה אבל ספרו בשבחה באופן שאחר כן שבו בתשובה כאמרו ותענו ותאמרו אלי חטאנו לה' ותשובו ותבכו לפני ה':
נשלחה אנשים, “we ourselves want to appoint these men and dispatch them.” This was something G’d did not approve of, and this is why He told Moses: “you dispatch them!” (Numbers 13,2) The men that were to spy out the land were to be appointed by Moses himself, not by a mob. G’d was afraid that the people would appoint totally unsuitable people to be their spies. The Torah had therefore made a point of reporting that the men selected for this task by Moses were all known as outstanding people, כלם אנשים, including such men as Joshua and Calev. Even those among them, who in the end expressed their belief that they could not hope to conquer this land, did not have the effrontery to badmouth the land itself, but praised it as an excellent land. This was also why it was possible for the people to repent their sin, i.e. they had made a faulty judgment in believing the 10 spies’ assessment of the chances of conquering the land. (compare Numbers 13, 41-45.
בשנאת ה' אותנו על מה שעבדנו ע''ג במצרים:
בשנאת ה' אותנו, because we had worshipped idols while we were in Egypt.