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The words of the spies were heard by willing ears. The people believed them implicitly,
and when called to task by Moses, replied: "O our teacher Moses, if there had been
only two spies or three, we should have had to give credence to their words, for the law
tells us to consider the testimony of even two as sufficient, whereas in this case there
are fully ten! 530 Our brethren have made us faint of heart. Because the Lord hated us,
He hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the
Amorites, to destroy us." By these words the Israelites revealed that they hated God,
and for this reason did they believe that they were hated by Him, for "whatever a man
wisheth his neighbor, doth he believe that his neighbor wisheth him." They even tried
to convince Moses that God hated them. They said: "If an earthly king has two sons
and two fields, on watered by a river, and the other dependent upon rains, will he not
five the one that is watered by the river to his favorite son, and give the other, less
excellent field to his other son? God led us out of Egypt, a land that is not dependent
upon rain, only to give us the land of Canaan, which produces abundantly only if the rains
fall." 531
Not only did the spies in the presence of Moses and Aaron voice their opinion that is was
not advisable to attempt conquering Palestine, but they employed every means of inciting
the people into rebellion against Moses and God. On the following evening every one of
them betook himself to his house, donned his mourning cloths, and began to weep bitterly
and to lament. Their housemates quickly ran toward them and in astonishment asked their
reason for these tears and lamentations. Without interrupting their wailings, they
answered" "Woe is me for ye, my sons, and woe is me for ye, my daughters and
daughters-in-law, that are doomed to be dishonored by the uncircumcised and to be given as
a prey to their lusts. These men that we have beheld are not like unto mortals. Strong and
mighty as angels are they; one of them might well slay a thousand of us. How dare we look
into the iron faces of men so powerful that a nail of theirs is sufficient to stop up a
spring of water!" At these words all the household, sons, daughters, and
daughters-in-law, burst into tears and loud lamentations. Their neighbors came running to
them and joined in the wails and sobs until they spread throughout all the camp, and all
the sixty myriads of people were weeping. When the sound of their weeping reached heaven,
God said: "Ye weep to-day without a cause, I shall see to it that in the future ye
shall have a cause to weep on this day." It was then that God decreed to destroy the
Temple on the ninth day of Ab, the day on which Israel in the wilderness wept without
cause, so that this day became forever a day of tears. 532
The people were not, however, content with tears, they resolved to set up as leaders in
place of Moses and Aaron, Dathan and Abiram, and under their guidance to return to Egypt.
533 But worse than this, not only did they renounce their leader, but also their God,
for they denied Him and wished to set up and idol for their God. 534 Not only the wicked
ones among them such as the mixed multitude demurred against Moses and Aaron, but those
also who had heretofore been pious, saying: "Would to God that we had died in the
land of Egypt! Or would to God we had died in this wilderness!"
When Joshua and Caleb heard these speeches of the people teeming with blasphemy, they rent
their garments and tried to restrain the people from their sinful enterprise, exhorting
them particularly to have fear of the Canaanites, because the time was at hand when God
had promised Abraham to give the land of Canaan to his descendants, and because there were
no pious men among the inhabitants of the land for whose sake God would have been willing
to leave it longer in their possession. They also assured the people that God had hurled
from heaven the guardian angel of the inhabitants of Palestine, so that they were now
impotent. 535 The people, however, replied: "We do not believe you; the other spies
have our weal and woe more at heart than you." 536 Nor were the admonitions of
Moses of more avail, even though he brought them a direct message from God to have no fear
of the Canaanites. In vain did he say to them, "He who wrought all those miracles for
you in Egypt and during your stay in the wilderness will work miracles for you as well
when you will enter the promised land. Truly the past ought to inspire you with trust in
the future." The only answer the people had to this was, "Had we heard this
report of the land from strangers, we should not have given it credit, but we have heard
it from men whose sons are our sons, and whose daughters are our daughters." 537 In
their bitterness against their leaders they wanted to lay hands upon Moses and Aaron,
whereupon God sent His cloud of glory as a protection to them, under which they sought
refuge. But far from being brought to a realization of their wicked enterprise by this
Divine apparition, they cast stones at the cloud, hoping in this way to kill Moses and
Aaron. This outrage on their part completely wore out God's patience, and He determined
upon the destruction of the spies, and a severe punishment of the people misled by them.
538
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