Illustration credit: Rebecca Kerzner
This is the first report that the מְרַגְּלִים (meraglim, spies) share about the Land of Canaan:
וַיְסַפְּרוּ לוֹ וַיֹּאמְרוּ
בָּאנוּ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר שְׁלַחְתָּנוּ
וְגַם זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבַשׁ הִוא
וְזֶה פִּרְיָהּ׃
אֶפֶס כִּי עַז הָעָם הַיֹּשֵׁב בָּאָרֶץ וְהֶעָרִים בְּצֻרוֹת גְּדֹלֹת מְאֹד
וְגַם יְלִדֵי הָעֲנָק רָאִינוּ שָׁם׃
This is what they told him:
“We came to the land where you sent us;
it does flow with milk and honey,
and this is its fruit.
However, the people who live there are powerful,
and the cities are fortified and very large.
We also saw the Anakites there.”
- What do you notice, and what are you wondering about?
- The meraglim seem to be speaking to only one person. Who do you think it is? Why?
- Which parts of this report do you think are positive, and which parts do you think are negative? Are the meraglim just reporting facts, or are there parts that are opinion?
- At the end of this story, Benei Yisrael refuse to enter the land and God punishes them with 40 years of wandering in the desert. Based on what the meraglim share in these pesukim, could the story have gone in a different direction? How could Benei Yisrael have responded to this report?
- As you read the rest of the story of the meraglim, try to identify what were the main moments when things really started to go wrong for the meraglim and for Benei Yisrael!
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