Rashi on TanakhNumbers 13

Send, for yourself. Why is the chapter of the spies adjacent to the chapter of Miriam? Because she was punished over the matter of her slanderous conversation about her brother, and those wicked men saw, but did not accept reproof.

Send, for yourself. According to your opinion I do not command you. If you wish, send. Because the Israelites came and said, ‘let us send men before us,’ as it is said, “all of you approached me, etc.” Moshe conferred with the Shechinah. He (Hashem) said, ‘I told them that it is good, as it is said, “I will bring you up from the suffering of Egypt, etc.” By their lives! I’ll give them an opportunity for error with the report of the spies, so that they will not inherit it.

By the word of Adonoy. With His permission — He did not stop him.

All of them [were] men of distinction. אֲנָשִׁים in Scripture always refers to distinction. At that time they were righteous.

Moshe called Hosheiah, etc. He prayed for him, ‘may Hashem save you from [joining] the counsel of the spies.”

Go up this [way], to the south. This was the worst of Eretz Yisroel. This is the method of merchants, first they display the worst, and then they display the best.

What the land is. Some countries nurture strong men, some countries nurture weaklings, some grow large populations, some diminish the populace.

Are they strong or weak. He gave them a sign. If they live in open cities, they are strong, since they are confident of their strength. But if they live in fortified cities, they are weak.

Are they open. Targum [Onkelos] translates, הַבְּפַצְחִין (“whether in open cities”), cities that are exposed and open, for lack of a wall.

Is it good. With excellent, prolific wells and deep water shelves.

Does it have trees. Whether there is, among them, a righteous man to protect them with his merit.

The first ripening of the grapes. Days when the grapes were first ripening.

From the desert of Tzin until Rechov, at the entrance of Chamas. They went along the length and width of its borders, like the form of the [Greek] gamma [G] They proceeded along the direction of the southern border from the eastern to the western corner as Moshe had commanded, “go up this way, to the south” by way of the southeastern border until the sea, as the sea is the western border. From there, they turned and proceeded along the entire western border by the seashore, until the entrance of Chamas, which is near Hor Hahar, at the northwestern corner, as the boundaries of the land are explicitly stated in the portion of “These are the journeys.”

And [he] came to Chevron: Caleiv went there alone and prostrated himself [in prayer] at the grave of the patriarchs, so that he would not be enticed by his companions to join in their design. Accordingly, it says, “I will give him (Caleiv) the land on which he walked,” and it is written, “they gave to Caleiv, Chevron.”

Was built seven years. Is it possible that Cham built Chevron, for his youngest son Canaan, before he built Tzo’an, for his eldest son Mitzrayim? Rather, it was built up with everything good, seven times more than Tzoan. This informs you of the praiseworthiness of Eretz Yisroel, for nothing in Eretz Yisroel is more barren than Chevron that is why it was set aside as a cemetery. Nothing is as excellent, among all the countries, as Mitzrayim, as it is said, “Like Hashem’s garden, like the land of Mitzrayim.” And Tzoan was the most excellent in the land of Mitzrayim, for the seat of royalty was there, as it is said, “for his ministers were in Tzoan.” Yet, Chevron was seven times better.

A branch. A branch of the grapevine with a cluster of grapes hanging from it.

They carried it between two on a pole. From the plain meaning of the statement “they carried it on a pole,” do I not know that it was with two [carriers]? What does the Torah teach by saying “between two”? With two poles. How was this? Eight took the cluster, one took the fig, one the pomegranate. Yehoshuah and Caleiv did not take anything, since the sole purpose of the others was to deliver a slanderous report — ‘Just as its fruit is strange, so are its people strange.’ If you want to know how much one of them weighed, go and learn from the stones they set up in Gilgal. Each man carried one stone from the Yardein on his shoulder, and set it up in Gilgal. The Rabbis determined that each weighed forty se’in, and tradition teaches that the load a man can carry on his shoulder is only a third of the load he can carry when others assist him.

They returned from spying the land, at the end of forty days. But is not [the land] four hundred by four hundred parsa’os, and the average person’s traveling distance is ten parsa’os a day, and then there was a traveling distance of forty days from east to west, and they traversed its length and breadth? But as it was revealed before the Holy One, Blessed is He, that He would sentence them with a day for a year, he shortened the way before them.

They went and came. What is [meant by] “they went”? To compare their going with their coming. Just as their coming was with an evil design, so was their going, with an evil design.

They brought word back to them. To Moshe and Aharon.

Flowing with milk and honey. A falsehood in which some truth is not stated at the beginning, cannot be maintained in the end.

Fortified. The word connotes strength. Targum [Onkelos] renders it כְּרִיכַן, meaning circular fortresses. In Aramaic, כְּרִיךְ means “circular.”

Amalek dwells, etc. Because they had already been burnt by Amalek, the spies mentioned them, to frighten them.

And next to the Yardein. יַד, like its plain meaning, next to the Yardein, and you will be unable to cross.

Caleiv silenced. He silenced them all.

To [hear about] Moshe. To hear what he would say about Moshe. He cried out, saying: ‘Is it only this that the son of Amram did to us’? The listener thought that he intended to slander him. Since they were resentful towards Moshe because of the spies’ report, they were all silent, in order to hear the slander about him. He said: ‘But did he not split the sea for us, and bring down the manna for us, and cause the quail to be blown to us’?

We can surely go up. Even to heaven, and even if he tells us to build ladders and go up there, we will succeed at whatever he says!

[He] silenced. The meaning is “silence.” Similarly, “silence, all flesh”! “silence, for it is not to be mentioned.” This is a person’s way. Someone who wants to quiet a group of people says, “sh-sh”!

They are more powerful than we. As if it were possible, they said this about the One above.

Which consumes its inhabitants. Wherever we passed we found them burying the dead. But the Holy One, Blessed is He, did this for their benefit, so that they would be preoccupied with their grief and pay no attention to them.

Men of dimensions. Big and tall, who need to be measured, like Golias, “Whose height was six amos and a zeres.” Similarly, “ אִישׁ מָדוֹן,” a man of dimensions.

The giants. Giants, children of Shamchazai and Azael, who fell from heaven in the days of Enosh.

And so we appeared in their eyes. We heard them say to each other, ‘There are ants in the vineyard like people.’

The giant. Who make the sun a necklace by their height.