Who's Idea Was It to Send the Spies?

Here one may ask, if this is so, then Moses himself sinned in this matter, as it is said, And the thing pleased me well! And furthermore, why did he tell [the spies] to find out about the Land, whether it is good or bad, since he had already been told at the beginning that it is a good Land, and a large one? Moreover, what did the spies do [wrong], since Moses told them, And see the Land what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and he said to see about the cities whether in camps, or in strongholds, and at the least they had to give him an answer to [the questions] that he commanded them!

And what was their trespass, and what was their sin when they told Moses, Nevertheless the people that dwell in the Land are fierce, and the cities are fortified and very great? Did he then send them on the understanding that they would give him a false report! And do not think that their trespass consisted only in their report that it is a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof, for prior telling this to the people, Caleb already quarreled with them! And likewise it is written, [that the people said], Our brethren [i.e., the spies] have made our heart to melt, saying: The people is greater and taller than we etc., and here it is written, to fall by the sword; our wives and our little ones will be a prey.

And yet Moses our teacher [himself] said similar things to the children [of the generation of the spies], and he emphasized to them the power of the people and the strength of their cities, and the might of the giants to a much greater extent than what the spies had told their fathers, as it is written, Hear O Israel: you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say: ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak!’ Now if the trespass of the spies and their sin consisted of this [discouraging report that they gave about the strength of the people in Canaan], why did he [Moses] dismay the heart of their children in the same way that the spies dismayed the heart of their fathers?

Moreover, what reason was there for Moses our teacher to send this mission? If [they would report that] the Land is good, and its inhabitants are weak — well and good; but if [they would say that] it is bad, or that the people are strong — would it enter his mind to take them back to Egypt!

But the explanation of this subject is as follows: The Israelites wanted [to act] in the way that all those who come to wage war in a foreign country do, namely to send out men to become acquainted with the roads and entrances to the cities; so that when they return [from their mission], the scouts will go at the head of the army, to show them the way, in a similar manner to that which it says, Show us, we pray you, the entrance into the city. Thus [the Israelites wanted the reconnaissance party] to advise them which city they should attack first, and from which direction it would be easy to capture the Land. This is what they said explicitly, and they [the spies] shall bring us back word of the way by which we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come, that is to say, the cities into which we shall come first, and from which we will enter the whole country.

Now, this is the correct guidance [to give] to anyone who [plans to] conquer a country. And so did Moses himself do, as it is said, And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and Joshua the son of Nun also [sent] two spies. It was for this reason that [the people’s request to send out scouts] pleased Moses, for Scripture does not [allow man] to rely on a miracle in any of its affairs. Instead, it commands those who go out to battle to arm themselves, to take [all necessary] precautions, and to set ambushes [if needed], as Scripture relates in connection with the battle for [the city of] Ai, which was by command of G-d, and similarly in many places.

Then Moses consulted the Divine Presence and G-d gave him permission, saying, “Send you men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan and become acquainted with it, and bring back a report to you, and according to their information you should take counsel regarding the conquest.”

Now Moses told the spies, Get you up here into the south, meaning: “Go up by this road into the south so that you will get to know the people who live in the land of the south — [this being] the direction from which Israel was [approaching] — [and see] whether they are strong and [the Israelites] when dealing with them will need to be very much on their guard and well-armed; similarly, [see] the cities, and whether they are fortified so that [the inhabitants] are well-entrenched, and it will therefore be necessary to build forts and ramps, or [even] to come against them from another direction.”

Moses further told them that they should get to know the Land itself, whether it is good or bad, and if it is bad, they should first conquer other parts [of it]; for they spied out the hill-country of the Amorites from the side of Hebron, and even Joshua did not conquer all [areas of the Land], — this being the meaning of the expression and what the Land is that they dwell in, meaning the people who live in the land of the south.

[Furthermore] it is possible that it was because Moses knew that it is a fertile and good land, — as he was told, unto a good Land and a large one, unto a Land flowing with milk and honey, — that he told them to set their minds ascertaining this, so that they would tell the people about it, and they would rejoice and gain renewed strength to go up there in joy. Therefore he told them, And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the Land, so that they [the people] would see with their own eyes the goodness of the Land.

Now it is well-known that Egypt is not very far from Hevron — approximately a seven-days’ journey distant — and the border of the land of Canaan comes close to Egypt, and it is therefore impossible that people who live in Egypt should not know about the land of Canaan whether it is good or bad.

And indeed Moses’ intention was to find out the way by which he should go up, and the cities which he was to capture first, as I have explained. However, since the Israelites in Egypt were slaves doing most rigorous work, they did not know, neither did they understand [the nature of the Land], therefore Moses wanted the spies to tell them all the particulars of the Land in order to cause them to rejoice in its qualities, since he [himself] knew of them.

Now it appears to me from the language of Scripture that Moses did not [in fact] consult the Divine Presence [as to whether he should send spies at all], but the meaning of Send you men is that they [the people] had decided [already] to send spies, and it was customary to send two spies secretly, saying: [‘Go view the Land’], and that they be taken [only] from some [tribes of the people]; but G-d Who knows the future commanded Moses [here] to send one man from each of the tribes of Israel, every one a prince among them. [This is because] G-d wanted all the great men to be [represented] equally in this matter so that perhaps they would remember and turn to the Eternal, and if not, so that the decree [of punishment] would apply equally to the whole people, this being the meaning of the expression [that Moses sent them] according to the commandment of the Eternal, for it was by command of G-d that they were to be princes and heads of the children of Israel.

It [further] appears to me according to the plain meaning of Scripture that G-d [in speaking] to Moses did not refer [at all] to the request which the people had made, to send out spies, nor to Moses’ consent to that request, for if that were the case, Scripture here would have related: “And the children of Israel approached Moses and said: Let us send men before us etc. And the thing pleased Moses well,” and afterward it would have written: “And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Send you men as they have spoken to you, one man etc.’”

But the matter was as follows. The Israelites asked to send [spies], and the thing pleased Moses well, and afterwards, a Divine communication came to Moses, as did all other such communications, merely saying, Send you men, this being the reason, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel, as He is speaking of a new matter about which nothing has been related. All this was because the Eternal was pleased, for His righteousness’ sake that the mission be at His command, and that it be with [the participation of] all their tribes and their great men, so that [the people] should be saved.

Thus this subject is related here without explanation, as it occurred, but in the Book of Devarim, Moses mentioned to them all the happenings from their beginning, in order to declare to them their transgression, that they sinned by their [very] request which they themselves initiated.

In the opinion of our Rabbis their sin was in saying Let us send men before us, because they had seen the salvation of the Eternal which He continually did for them, and they should have followed the cloud whither the spirit was to go, and Moses accepted their request to fulfill their desire.

The meaning, then, of [the verse] And the thing pleased me well is: “I endured your evil plan and directed that it be done”. And God commanded him that he send one man of every tribe of their fathers etc., just like it is said in the case of Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them.

Now these men [who were sent out as spies] were not pointed out by name by the word of G-d, as was the case at the census and at the division of the Land, for no mishap occurs to those who carry out the command of God, and who keep the commandment shall know no evil thing. Therefore He, only commanded Moses one man of every tribe of their fathers shall you send, and that they be princes, and Moses at his own discretion chose these men and sent them, and they brought evil upon themselves.

שלח לך אנשים, “Send forth men, on your behalf.” Rashi’s comment on the wording is that G’d did not command Moses to do this, but He did not oppose it if Moses wanted to do it on his own account.

Nachmanides questions Rashi’s commentary by saying that if so Moses would have had a part in the sin of the spies seeing that he is on record in Devarim 1,23 as having specifically approved the people’s request to dispatch these spies.

Nachmanides therefore resolves this problem by stating that the people like any people who are about to engage in an aggressive war, wanted to prepare themselves and to know what they would be up against, and how they could most easily conquer their objectives.

In fact that is precisely what the people represented as their motives as we know from Devarim 1,22 when they are quoted as saying: “we want to know on which road to ascend and the cities to which we will come.” In other words, the request was of a tactical nature. This sounded like a perfectly reasonable request to Moses, and did not indicate that the people did not believe him when he had told them that the land was a good land.

שלח לך אנשים, "send out men for yourself, etc." We need to analyse why the word לך was written here. I have already quoted that our sages in Sotah 34 understand the word as indicating permission rather than a command. This leaves us with the puzzle why G'd would consent to an initiative which He knew would result in disaster. Before explaining all this let me begin with an introduction to the problem. Whence did the whole terrible disaster originate? If we were to see the fact that spies were sent out as the root cause of the disaster then Joshua certainly should have learned a lesson and should not have sent out spies before capturing Jericho (compare Joshua 2,1). It follows that the idea of sending spies to help in the conquest of the Holy Land was not objectionable in itself. If the reason the mission failed was due to the calibre of the spies, this too is hard to accept seeing that the Torah testifies that Moses sent out righteous men, men of whom G'd had approved.

I took from you. Since the stated purposed was to spy out how to conquer the land, it would have been better to hire non-Jewish spies who were experts in war and conquest… However Moshe Rabbeinu knew that by the laws of nature it would be difficult to conquer, without strength of faith and trust in Hashem, along with a desire to inherit the good land. This would have been impossible for foreigners to understand, so the spies had to be “from you.”… He also thought that the spies would become strengthened and hearty from their expedition, like Calev when he entered Chevron, and through this they would know that they would succeed in conquering the land.