מאת: אבנר רמו
In the Book of Numbers we read:
וידבר יהוה, אל-משה לאמר. שלח-לך אנשים ויתרו את-ארץ כנען, אשר-אני נתן לבני ישראל: איש אחד איש אחד למטה אבתיו תשלחו--כל נשיא בהם. “
And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying: Send you men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, everyone a prince among them” (Num 13:1-2). However, in the Book of Deuteronomy we find:
ותקרבון אלי כלכם ותאמרו נשלחה אנשים לפנינו, ויחפרו-לנו את-הארץ; וישבו אתנו דבר--את-הדרך אשר נעלה-בה, ואת הערים אשר נבא אליהן. וייטב בעיני הדבר; ואקח מכם שנים עשר אנשים, איש אחד לשבט.“And you came near to me every one of you,
and said: Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us back word of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come. And the thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe” (Deu 1:22-23). We therefore have to wonder whether sending the scouts to survey the land was God’s idea or was it requested by the Israelites. In the Book of Numbers we are told that the returning scouts reported:
ויראום את-פרי הארץ. ויספרו-לו ויאמרו, באנו אל-הארץ אשר שלחתנו; וגם זבת חלב ודבש הוא--וזה-פריה. אפס כי-עז העם הישב בארץ; והערים בצרות גדלת מאד, וגם-ילדי הענק ראינו שם. “
and [they] showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said: We came to the land whither you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Howbeit the people that dwell in the land are fierce, and the cities are fortified, and very great; and moreover we saw the children of Anak there” (Num 13:26-28).
וכל-העם אשר-ראינו בתוכה, אנשי מדות. ושם ראינו את-הנפילים בני ענק--מן-הנפלים; ונהי בעינינו כחגבים, וכן היינו בעיניהם.“And all
the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Num 13:32-33). Yet in the Book of Deuteronomy we read about these scouts:
ויקחו בידם מפרי הארץ ויורדו אלינו; וישבו אתנו דבר ויאמרו, טובה הארץ אשר-יהוה אלהינו נתן לנו.
“And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us back word, and said: Good is the land which YHWH our God gives to us” (Deu 1:25). This verse does not represents the words of ten of the twelve scouts but only the words of Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh (Num 14:6-7). The Deuteronomist implies that although this report was so positive the Israelites “would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of YHWH” (Deu 1:26). However, immediately after that the Deuteronomist indicates that the Israelites were murmuring in their tents:
אחינו המסו את-לבבנו לאמר עם גדול ורם ממנו, ערים גדלת ובצורת בשמים; וגם-בני ענקים, ראינו שם.“
Our brethren have made our heart to melt, saying: The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there” (Deu 1:28). Apparently this attitude of the Israelites caused them not “to go up” and Moses’ assurances were not able to change their minds:
ואמר אלכם: לא-תערצון ולא-תיראון מהם. יהוה אלהיכם ההלך לפניכם, הוא ילחם לכם:“
Then I said to you: Dread not, neither be afraid of them. YHWH your God who goes before you, He shall fight for you” (Deu 1:29-30; see also Deu 9:1-3)). We should notice that in the Book of Numbers there is no mention of such a dialog between Moses and the Israelites. Furthermore, while the Deuteronomist tells the Israelites again that it will be God himself who will bring down these great and tall people, the sons of the Anakim, before the Israelites (Deu 9:1-3), there is no mention here that the Israelites will refuse to collaborate with Him. The writer of the Book of Numbers tells us:
וימתו האנשים מוצאי דבת-הארץ רעה--במגפה לפני יהוה. ויהושע בן-נון, וכלב בן-יפנה, חיו מן-האנשים ההם ההלכים לתור את-הארץ.
“Even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before YHWH. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land” (Num 14:37-38). The Deuteronomist, who repeatedly admitted that indeed there were “men of great stature” in that land and therefore it appears that in his opnion ten of the scout have told the truth and therefore were not “evil reporters.” This realization may have led the Deuteronomist to conclude that it was the fault of the Israelites who did not trust God who promised to fight for them against these giants, and not the culpability of the truthful scouts. This conclusion led the Deuteronomist to write (contrary to the writer of the Book of Numbers):
וישמע יהוה את-קול דבריכם; ויקצף וישבע לאמר. אם-יראה איש באנשים האלה, הדור הרע הזה--את הארץ הטובה, אשר נשבעתי לתת לאבתיכם. זולתי כלב בן-יפנה, הוא יראנה ולו-אתן את-הארץ אשר דרך-בה ולבניו—יען אשר מלא אחרי יהוה."
And YHWH heard the voice of your words, and was wroth and swore, saying: Surely there shall not one of these men, even this evil generation, see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers, Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he had trodden upon, and to his children; because he had wholly followed YHWH” (Deu 1:34-36). We have first to wonder, why Joshua is not mentioned here with Caleb. Yet a more serious question is: what is the justification for handling capital punishment to ten of the scouts who told the truth, while saving the lives of Joshua and Caleb who betrayed their mission and did not report inconvenient but crucially important facts. It appears quite sarcastic to learn that those scouts who did not reveal to the Israelites about the presence of giants in the Promised Land, themselves had to deal with such creatures:
ויבא יהושע בעת ההיא ויכרת את-הענקים מן-ההר מן-חברון מן-דבר מן-ענב, ומכל הר יהודה, ומכל הר ישראל: עם-עריהם החרימם יהושע. לא-נותר ענקים בארץ בני ישראל: רק בעזה בגת ובאשדוד--נשארו.
“And Joshua came at that time, and cut off the Anakim from the hill-country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill-country of Judah, and from all the hill-country of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the children of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, did some remain” (Jos 11:21-22).
ולכלב בן-יפנה נתן חלק בתוך בני-יהודה, אל-פי יהוה ליהושע--את-קרית ארבע אבי הענק, היא חברון. וירש משם כלב את-שלושה בני הענק--את-ששי ואת-אחימן ואת-תלמי, ילידי הענק.
“And to Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a portion among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of YHWH to Joshua, even Kiriath-arba, which Arba was the father of Anak--the same is Hebron. And Caleb drove out thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak” (Jos 15:13-14; see also: Jos 14:12, 15).