Bring Back the Fruit!

(1) ה' spoke to Moses, saying, (2) “Send agents to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one participant from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them.” (3) So Moses, by יהוה’s command, sent them out from the wilderness of Paran, all of them being men of consequence, leaders of the Israelites. (4) And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur. (5) From the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori. (6) From the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh. (7) From the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph. (8) From the tribe of Ephraim, Hosea son of Nun. (9) From the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Rafu. (10) From the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi. (11) From the tribe of Joseph, namely, the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi. (12) From the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli. (13) From the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael. (14) From the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi. (15) From the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. (16) Those were the names of the participants whom Moses sent to scout the land; but Moses changed the name of Hosea son of Nun to Joshua. (17) When Moses sent them to scout the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb and on into the hill country, (18) and see what kind of country it is. Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many? (19) Is the country in which they dwell good or bad? Are the towns they live in open or fortified? (20) Is the soil rich or poor? Is it wooded or not? And take pains to bring back some of the fruit of the land.”—Now it happened to be the season of the first ripe grapes. (NJPS)

And what is the land, is it fat or lean, are there trees in it or not. And you shall muster strength and take of the fruit of the land." And the season was the season of the first ripe grapes. (Robert Alter)

and what the land is [like]:
whether it is fat or lean,
whether there are trees in it or not.
Exert yourselves,
and take some of the fruit of the land
—now these days were the days of the first ripe-grapes. (Everett Fox)

and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is 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 first-ripe grapes.—(OJPS)

How is the land (soil) is it fat (rich) or lean (poor), does it have trees, or not? You shall strengthen yourselves, and you shall take some fruit of the land.” Those days were the days of the first ripening of the grapes. (Metsudah)

The instructions to them don't mention any "strengthening" until the moment of taking the fruit, because only then will all of them bear a load, and require any particular "strengthening."

How is this comment similar to Alter's?

(2) והתחזקתם, take like brave men who are not afraid of anything.

How is this comment different from the previous two?

Why would Moses give this advice?

‘And be ye of good courage’, and bring [of the fruit of the Land]. This means that they are not to be afraid when taking of the fruit of the Land that they might be recognized by the people as spies.

(1) והתחזקתם, “be of good courage.” They needed to be on their guard, seeing that it was the beginning of the harvest season and the farmers would watch their crops against thieves.

What question(s) does Chizkuni answer?

(2) היש בה עץ, are there fruit trees, such as grape vines, fig trees, pomegranate trees and olive trees. (3) And take courage and take some of the fruit of the land to take (legal) possession of it (i.e. the Land), and do not fear that they will consider you spies. (4) , 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.

What does Sforno add to Chizkuni's comment?

[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 [fact], so that [upon their return] 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 ye 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.

What question(s) does Ramban answer here?

And you shall muster strength and take of the fruit of the land. Since it was the time of the first grape harvest, and the owners were careful about the taking. Nonetheless, be courageous and be "like men," because God is with you. This hints at the idea that Israel is compared to grapes, as it says,

I found Israel [as pleasing]
As grapes in the wilderness; (Hosea 9:10). And in midrash, it says, the bunches of grapes ripened (Gen. 40:10), meaning, the time of Israel's redemption arrived. Regarding this it says here that these were the days of the first ripe grapes. The time had arrived for them to enter the land of Israel because they had already been blessed and ripened and had completed all of their being made whole by way of the Torah that they had received.

What question(s) does Kli Yakar answer? What are his answer?

(1) 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).

Rava says: Job lived at the time of the spies whom Moses sent to scout the land of Canaan. This is proven by the fact that it is written here: “There was a man in the land of Utz, whose name was Job” (Job 1:1), and it is written there in the account of the spies: “Whether there are trees [eitz] in it” (Numbers 13:20). The Gemara asks: Is it comparable? Here the word that is used is Utz, whereas there the word is eitz. The Gemara answers: This is what Moses said to Israel, i.e., to the spies: Is that man named Job still alive, he whose years are as long as the years of a tree and who protects his generation like a tree? This is why the allusion to him here is through the word eitz, rather than Utz.

(1) A righteous man. For it is written afterwards “you shall strengthen yourselves, and you shall take some fruit of the land,” thus there were trees. Re'm explains that if the land is fat then there would naturally be trees and he had already asked them if the land was fat or lean. Even though the Rabbis expounded that [the tree that] he was talking about [refers specifically to] Iyov (Bava Basra 15a), Rashi simply writes “a righteous man” because this is closer to the simple meaning of the verse.

What two questions does Siftei Chakhamim answer?