s, with regard to the use of the word commandment, it was "with His permission; for He did not prevent" Moses from acting on His behalf. Nachshoni understands this to be an example of God permitting man to exercise his "free will to operate. His decision to let the Israelites be deceived constituted prior knowledge of their fate, but that did not nullify their ability to choose." In other words, when the Lord "commands" Moses to send out spies, the real sense by which this command must be understood is "send for yourself."
Nachshoni further demonstrates that the Lord's choice of language is deliberate. The second half of verse 2 states: "which I am giving to the Israelite people," not "which you are going to take." In conjunction with Moses' instructions later in verse 18 to investigate the people as well as the land, it is clear that the Lord "wished them to se that not their own, but the supernatural strength of Hashem would save them."
As Moses selected the twelve spies, he was mindful to select "chieftains" or "princes," or, as Ginzberg writes, "the most distinguished and most pious of their respective tribes." Nachshoni posits that "The main thing is that they should not send wanton and worthless men." Nevertheless, this did not insure that the report which would be forthcoming would be accurate. Ginzberg comments that "hardly had these men been appointed to their office when they made wicked resolve to bring up an evil report of the land, and dissuade the people from moving to Palestine." According to Weissman, the ten unrighteous spies concluded among themselves that they would not have the same positions of honor under Joshua's leadership which they had under Moses. Thus, they decided, "Let us therefore detain the people in the wilderness to ensure that we shall not be demoted from our high positions."
Ginzberg makes an eloquent presentation of the significance of the names of the spies. To c...