The Sin of the Scouts

In preparation for the conquest of the land, YHWH commands Moses to send tribal chieftains to scout out the entire “land of Canaan” from the wilderness of Zin in the south to Rehov Levo-Hamat in the far north.^[1] After forty days, the men return with a negative report about both the land and its inhabitants:

^{במדבר יג:כה} וַיָּשֻׁבוּ מִתּוּר הָאָרֶץ מִקֵּץ אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם. // ^יג:לב וַיּוֹצִיאוּ דִּבַּת הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר תָּרוּ אֹתָהּ אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר עָבַרְנוּ בָהּ לָתוּר אֹתָהּ אֶרֶץ אֹכֶלֶת יוֹשְׁבֶיהָ הִוא וְכָל הָעָם אֲשֶׁר רָאִינוּ בְתוֹכָהּ אַנְשֵׁי מִדּוֹת...

^{Num 13:25} At the end of forty days they returned from scouting the land. // ^13:32 And they spread calumnies among the Israelites about the land they had scouted, saying, “The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. All the people that we saw in it are men of great size…”

Following a lengthy description of the people’s panicked reaction and YHWH’s wrathful vow that this generation of Israelites will die over the next forty years without entering the land, YHWH punishes the wicked scouts for their perfidy with a plague:

^{במדבר יד:לז} וַיָּמֻתוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים מוֹצִאֵי דִבַּת הָאָרֶץ רָעָה בַּמַּגֵּפָה לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה.

^{Nun 14:37} The men who spread calumnies about the land died of plague, before YHWH.

Considering that the scouts are the cause of Israel’s sin, their punishment differs from that of the rest of the Israelites: the scouts’ death is immediate.

Stories about Sinner Getting Punished in the Wilderness

YHWH’s direct punishment of the scouts is reminiscent of other stories set in the wilderness. Nadav and Avihu (Lev 10) bring a strange fire that was not requested as part of the ceremony dedicating the Tabernacle. Their fate parallels that of the scouts:

^{ויקרא י:ב} וַתֵּצֵא אֵשׁ מִלִּפְנֵי יְ־הוָה וַתֹּאכַל אוֹתָם וַיָּמֻתוּ לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה.

^{Lev 10:2} And fire came forth from YHWH and consumed them; thus they died before YHWH.

^{במדבר יד:לז} וַיָּמֻתוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים מוֹצִאֵי דִבַּת הָאָרֶץ רָעָה בַּמַּגֵּפָה לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה.

^{Num 14:37} The men who spread calumnies about the land died of plague before YHWH.

The 250 chieftains in the Korah story (Num 16) wish to serve as priests, and in a competition with Aaron, are burnt up in a divine fire while offering incense. The description of the chieftains upon their death is similar to that of the scouts:

^{במדבר טז:לה} וְאֵשׁ יָצְאָה מֵאֵת יְ־הוָה וַתֹּאכַל אֵת הַחֲמִשִּׁים וּמָאתַיִם אִישׁ מַקְרִיבֵי הַקְּטֹרֶת.

^{Num 16:35} And a fire went forth from YHWH and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense.

^{במדבר יד:לז} וַיָּמֻתוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים מוֹצִאֵי דִבַּת הָאָרֶץ רָעָה בַּמַּגֵּפָה לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה.

^{Num 14:37} The men who spread calumnies about the land died of plague before YHWH.

The Torah narrates other cases where individuals are punished for their sins: In Numbers 12, Miriam is struck with tzaraʿat (skin disease) when she speaks badly about Moses and his Kushite wife to her brother Aaron; and she and must wait outside the camp for a week; when Dathan and Abiram (Num 16) complain about the land and refuse to appear before Moses, they are swallowed up by the earth.^[2]

The Sin of the People

A description of how the Israelites reacted to the report of the scouts is found after the narration of their negative report and before their punishment:

^{במדבר יד:א} וַתִּשָּׂא כָּל הָעֵדָה וַיִּתְּנוּ אֶת קוֹלָם // ^יד:ב וַיִּלֹּנוּ עַל מֹשֶׁה וְעַל אַהֲרֹן כֹּל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֲלֵהֶם כָּל הָעֵדָה לוּ מַתְנוּ בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם אוֹ בַּמִּדְבָּר הַזֶּה לוּ מָתְנוּ. ^יד:ג וְלָמָה יְ־הוָה מֵבִיא אֹתָנוּ אֶל הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת לִנְפֹּל בַּחֶרֶב נָשֵׁינוּ וְטַפֵּנוּ יִהְיוּ לָבַז הֲלוֹא טוֹב לָנוּ שׁוּב מִצְרָיְמָה.

^{Num 14:1} The whole assembly broke into loud cries // ^14:2 And all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! ^14:3 Why is YHWH bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”^[3]

Once the people declare they want to return to Egypt, Moses and Aaron fall on their faces, a gesture of entreaty (v. 5),^[4] and then the people wish to stone them to death, prompting YHWH to appear at the Tent of Meeting:

^{במדבר יד:ה} וַיִּפֹּל מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן עַל פְּנֵיהֶם לִפְנֵי כָּל קְהַל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. // ^יד:י וַיֹּאמְרוּ כָּל הָעֵדָה לִרְגּוֹם אֹתָם בָּאֲבָנִים וּכְבוֹד יְ־הוָה נִרְאָה בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד אֶל כָּל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{Num 14:5} Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembled congregation of the Israelites. //^{[5] 14:10} As the whole community threatened to pelt them with stones, the Glory of YHWH appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites.

YHWH then speaks to Moses and Aaron, telling them that the people’s complaints are too much:

^{במדבר יד:כז} עַד מָתַי לָעֵדָה הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר הֵמָּה מַלִּינִים עָלָי אֶת תְּלֻנּוֹת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר הֵמָּה מַלִּינִים עָלַי שָׁמָעְתִּי.

^{Num 14:27} How much longer shall that wicked community keep muttering against Me? Very well, I have heeded the incessant muttering of the Israelites against Me.

Thus, YHWH tells Moses and Aaron, they are to deliver a message to the people, informing them that their punishment will be exactly what they feared: death in the wilderness. But only they will be punished; their children will still inherit the land:

^{במדבר יד:כח} אֱמֹר אֲלֵהֶם חַי אָנִי נְאֻם יְ־הוָה אִם לֹא כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתֶּם בְּאָזְנָי כֵּן אֶעֱשֶׂה לָכֶם. ^יד:כט בַּמִּדְבָּר הַזֶּה יִפְּלוּ פִגְרֵיכֶם... ^יד:לג וּבְנֵיכֶם יִהְיוּ רֹעִים בַּמִּדְבָּר אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה וְנָשְׂאוּ אֶת זְנוּתֵיכֶם עַד תֹּם פִּגְרֵיכֶם בַּמִּדְבָּר.

^{Num 14:28} Say to them: “As I live,” says YHWH, “I will do to you just as you have urged Me. ^14:29 In this very wilderness shall your carcasses drop….^{[6] 14:33} while your children roam the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, until the last of your carcasses is down in the wilderness.^[7]

Surprisingly, YHWH speaks here only about the people in general, and says nothing about the scouts themselves and their immanent punishment. Indeed, the lengthy emphasis on the punishment of the exodus generation virtually drowns out the punishment of the scouts.

Rabbinic Midrash on How They Died

In an attempt to give the punishment of the scouts more prominence, rabbinic midrash elaborates on the nature of the plague that befell the scouts:

^{בבלי סוטה לה.} אמר רבי שמעון בן לקיש: שמתו מיתה משונה.

^{b. Sotah 35a} Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: “They died an unusual death.”

A more creative suggestion envisions their suffering a grotesque and painful death:

אמר רבי חנינא בר פפא, דרש ר' שילא איש כפר תמרתא: מלמד, שנשתרבב לשונם ונפל על טיבורם, והיו תולעים יוצאות מלשונם ונכנסות בטיבורם, ומטיבורם ונכנסות בלשונם.

Rabbi Hanina bar Pappa said: R. Sheila of Tamrata Village offered a homily: “It teaches that their tongues distended, falling down to their navels, and worms would exit their tongues and enter their navels, and [they would exit] their navels and enter their tongues.”

As Rashi explains, the image of distended tongues producing worms is meant to present a measure for measure punishment for speaking badly.^[8] Another explanation suggests that they died of croup:

ורב נחמן בר יצחק אמר: באסכרה מתו.

And Rav Nahman bar Isaac said: “They died of croup.”

Elsewhere, the Talmud declares croup to be the worst form of death (b. Berakhot 8a) and one that is meted out for talking slander (b. Shabbat 33a). These midrashic elaborations are attempts to correct the impression that the sin and punishment of the scouts is a secondary theme, and the main focus is the sin and punishment of the Israelites. Indeed, Jacob Milgrom argued that the punishment of the scouts is an “editorial interpolation,”^[9] while George Coates refers to it as the Priestly writer’s “afterthought.”^[10]

Nevertheless, the scouts are the cause of the people’s sin, so it makes sense to conclude the story with their punishment. Moreover, as noted above, the punishment of the scouts fits with the pattern we find in other biblical stories about the wilderness period.^[11] Instead, I would maintain that the theme of the punishment of the scouts is original and integral to the story, while the people’s reaction and their forty-year punishment is the secondary development.

The Wilderness Wandering: A Later Motif

Scholars have noted that in some early biblical texts, the exodus generation did enter the land. For example, the early layer of the book of Deuteronomy envisions Moses addressing the exodus generation; this was later revised to be about the next generation.^[12] The Priestly text of the Torah (P), I would argue, went through the same development.^[13]

In its earliest layer, P does not suggest that the exodus generation died in the wilderness. The Priestly authors introduced this theme later, by revising the story of the scouts to include a rebellion by the people and consequently a punishment of wilderness wandering.

“All that Wicked Band”

The transition between YHWH’s speech to Moses and the punishment of the scouts suggests that an early layer has been supplemented. When reading this verse in context, YHWH seems to be simply repeating how the people have sinned and will be punished:

^{במדבר יד:לה} אֲנִי יְ־הוָה דִּבַּרְתִּי אִם לֹא זֹאת אֶעֱשֶׂה לְכָל הָעֵדָה הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת הַנּוֹעָדִים עָלָי בַּמִּדְבָּר הַזֶּה יִתַּמּוּ וְשָׁם יָמֻתוּ.

^{Num 14:35} I YHWH have spoken: Thus will I do to all that wicked band that has banded together against Me: in this very wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.

The verse, however, makes no mention of the children that would survive and enter the land after forty-years. This is because, originally, it was an independent statement not about the wilderness wandering but about what will happen to the scouts, the “wicked band” in question. Accordingly, in the oldest version of the story, after the scouts deliver their bad report, YHWH immediately warns Moses that they are condemned to die in the wilderness, and immediately they are struck with a plague.

Reframing the Punishment of the Scouts

Once this warning became part of YHWH’s larger speech, its connection to the punishment of the scouts was lost. Thus, the next verse was added after YHWH’s warning as a transition:

^{במדבר יד:לו} וְהָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַח מֹשֶׁה לָתוּר אֶת הָאָרֶץ וַיָּשֻׁבוּ (וילונו) [וַיַּלִּינוּ] עָלָיו אֶת כָּל הָעֵדָה לְהוֹצִיא דִבָּה עַל הָאָרֶץ.

^{Num 14:36} As for the men whom Moses sent to scout the land, those who came back and caused the whole community to mutter against him by spreading calumnies about the land.

The verse does not connect grammatically with the next verse which it ostensibly introduces:

^{במדבר יד:לז} וַיָּמֻתוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים מוֹצִאֵי דִבַּת הָאָרֶץ רָעָה בַּמַּגֵּפָה לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה.

^{Num 14:37} The men who spread calumnies about the land died of plague, before YHWH.

According to this last verse (37), God punishes the scouts because they spread an evil report about the land. According to the introductory verse (36), however, God punishes the scouts because they used their evil report about the land as a tool to incite the Israelites to murmur and rebel. This verse was added to connect the sin of the people to the sin of the scouts.

The Layered Priestly Text

Nearly all critical scholars of the Bible agree that a unique Priestly source, or stratum, bearing a distinctive literary style, vocabulary, and theology, appears in various parts of the Torah. P consists of narratives, genealogies, and laws, and highlights the centrality of the cult and matters of purity and sanctity.

Scholars also broadly agree on the literary distribution of P. It appears in all of Leviticus, in large sections of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, and almost not at all in Deuteronomy, and is interspersed with non-Priestly materials, though it can usually be isolated with little difficulty.^[14]

While most scholars assume that the Priestly narrative is largely unified, others, believe that it is quite often stratified, or multi-layered, a position that I endorse.^[15] The story of the scouts in an excellent example of such layering. In my “The Story of the Anonymous Scouts, Modified by the Book of Numbers” (TheTorah 2022), I show how the theme of the good scouts, Caleb and Joshua, was added to the Priestly account at a late time. Here, however, I argue that this was itself an addition to a redacted story which originally told only of the sinful scouts and their punishment.

The Priestly editor transformed the early story about the sin of the scouts, who spoke evil about the land and were killed in the wilderness, into a story about national rebellion (Num 14:1a, 2–3, 5, 10), and the consequent divine oracle condemning the entire exodus generation to death in the wilderness.^[16] The sin of the scouts now was not only that they spoke evil of the land, but that they provoked and incited mutiny. And now the scouts are not alone in dying in the wilderness; the exodus generation as a whole dies out.

This transformation of the story is part and parcel of a broad trend that can be discerned in other stories of the Torah as well, in which the Israelites are presented in increasingly negative terms and said to have suffered near extinction. This literary trend is a reflex of the increasingly tragic events that the Israelites suffered, probably around the time of the Judean exile.

The new form of the scouts story not only expanded the extent of sin and death in the wilderness, it also added a crucial new element: life beyond death through the birth of a new generation. The writers thus expressed hope for their own times, and for ours.

Appendix

The Core Priestly Story of the Scouts

The original Priestly story was comprised of the following verses:

^{במדבר יג: א} וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר. ^יג:ב שְׁלַח לְךָ אֲנָשִׁים וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן // ^יג:ג וַיִּשְׁלַח אֹתָם מֹשֶׁה מִמִּדְבַּר פָּארָן עַל פִּי יְ־הוָה כֻּלָּם אֲנָשִׁים רָאשֵׁי בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הֵמָּה. // ^יג:כא // וַיָּתֻרוּ אֶת הָאָרֶץ מִמִּדְבַּר צִן עַד רְחֹב לְבֹא חֲמָת. //

^{Num 13:1} YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, ^13:2 “Send men to scout the land of Canaan //.” ^13:3 So Moses, by YHWH’s command, sent them out from the wilderness of Paran, all the men being leaders of the Israelites. // ^13:21 // They scouted the land, from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, at Lebo-hamath. //

^יג:כה וַיָּשֻׁבוּ מִתּוּר הָאָרֶץ מִקֵּץ אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם. // ^יג:לב וַיּוֹצִיאוּ דִּבַּת הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר תָּרוּ אֹתָהּ אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר עָבַרְנוּ בָהּ לָתוּר אֹתָהּ אֶרֶץ אֹכֶלֶת יוֹשְׁבֶיהָ הִוא וְכָל הָעָם אֲשֶׁר רָאִינוּ בְתוֹכָהּ אַנְשֵׁי מִדּוֹת. ^יד:לג וְשָׁם רָאִינוּ אֶת הַנְּפִילִים בְּנֵי עֲנָק מִן הַנְּפִלִים וַנְּהִי בְעֵינֵינוּ כַּחֲגָבִים וְכֵן הָיִינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶם.

^13:25 At the end of forty days they returned from scouting the land. // ^13:32 And they spread calumnies among the Israelites about the land they had scouted, saying, “The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. All the people that we saw in it are men of great size; ^13:33 we saw the nephilim there—giants who are among the nephilim—and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.”

^{במדבר יד:כו} וַיְדַבֵּר יְ־הוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה // לֵאמֹר. ^יד:כז עַד מָתַי לָעֵדָה הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת // ^יד:לה אֲנִי יְ־הוָה דִּבַּרְתִּי אִם לֹא זֹאת אֶעֱשֶׂה לְכָל הָעֵדָה הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת הַנּוֹעָדִים עָלָי בַּמִּדְבָּר הַזֶּה יִתַּמּוּ וְשָׁם יָמֻתוּ. // ^יד:לז וַיָּמֻתוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים מוֹצִאֵי דִבַּת הָאָרֶץ רָעָה בַּמַּגֵּפָה לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה.

^{Num 14:26} YHWH spoke to Moses // saying, ^14:27 “How much longer with this wicked congregation?! // ^14:35 “I, YHWH, hereby declare, ‘I will surely do the following to this whole wicked band that has banded against me: In the wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!’” // ^14:37 And the men who spread calumnies about the land died of plague before YHWH.