Why Moshe Rewrote History

(25) They took some of the fruit of the land with them and brought it down to us. And they gave us this report: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving to us.”

(26) They went straight to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran, and they made their report to them and to the whole community, as they showed them the fruit of the land. (27) This is what they told him: “We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. (28) However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the Anakites there. (29) Amalekites dwell in the Negeb region; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites inhabit the hill country; and Canaanites dwell by the Sea and along the Jordan.” (30) Caleb hushed the people before Moses and said, “Let us by all means go up, and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.” (31) But the men who had gone up with him said, “We cannot attack that people, for it is stronger than we.”

(6) And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of those who had scouted the land, rent their clothes (7) and exhorted the whole Israelite community: “The land that we traversed and scouted is an exceedingly good land.”

... Why did Moshe leave out all of their evil speech and say that they said, "It is a good land?" If it was a land that eats up its inhabitants, as they had said, how was the land good?"

ויאמרו טובה הארץ AND THEY SAID, THE LAND IS GOOD — Who were they who spoke of it being good? Joshua and Caleb .

(1) AND THEY SAID: ‘GOOD IS THE LAND WHICH THE ETERNAL OUR G-D GIVETH UNTO US.’... All the spies admitted before Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation, saying, "We came unto the Land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." Thus they were all in consensus on the goodness of the Land itself, but, with reference to the strength of those nations living there, they melted the people’s hearts. Then, when [the ten spies] saw that Joshua and Caleb were encouraging the people to wage war, the spies came to the children of Israel not in the presence of Moses and they disseminated a slanderous report about the Land to the effect that "it is a Land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof." This is [what Moses meant when he stated here], and ye murmured in your tents...

For they were sent about this, to see the goodness of the land... Since they were sent about this detail, they had to give an answer to those that sent them. And they admitted about this that, "It is a good land" from the perspective of [it being], "that the Lord our God is giving [it] to us" - that if the Lord gives it to us miraculously, there is no objection about the land itself. And [Moshe] did not mention that which they said (Numbers 13:28), "However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful" - as this was not an answer, since they were not sent about this... So [the people] should not have paid attention to this, since they gave a positive answer to that which they were sent about. And regarding that which they said, "the people are powerful," they were not sent about it.

(29) I said to you, "Have no dread or fear of them."

(5) Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembled congregation of the Israelites. (6-7) see above

Here it is not mentioned what they said to them, but it's mentioned in [Deuteronomy].

And how did [Moshe] say, "I said to you, 'Have no dread or fear of them.'" As we did not find that Moshe said something like this or something similar to it. Rather he was quiet and fell on his face... And perhaps we can say that since Yehoshua and Kalev, his students, said to [the people] (Numbers 14:9, "Only you must not rebel against the Lord. Have no fear then of the people of the country, for they are our prey: their protection has departed from them, but the Lord is with us. Have no fear of them" - Moshe considered these words as if he said them himself.

Why did our master, Moshe, not want to inform them in this recounting how God, may He be blessed, commanded him about the sending [of the spies], with His saying, "Send spies for yourself, etc.?" Rather he attributed the thing to [the people] and to himself... And also why did he not recount the commands that our teacher, Moshe - peace be upon him - commanded the spies, that they should see the people, the land and the cities? And also why did he not present what the spies said, "it is a land that eats up its inhabitants?" The reason for all of this is that he was speaking with the second generation - their children that arose after them. And if they heard the truth of the incident as it happened, they would say that the reason for the delay in the desert was God, may He be blessed... They would say, "Why did God put a stumbling block in front of the blind?" And they would also speak about Moshe, thinking that he was also truly a cause for their delay, since he - peace be upon him - commanded things to the spies that the people had not asked for and [God] had not commanded... This is the opposite of what Moshe was trying to explain to them, to internalize the praise of the commandments and their observance... And Moshe also saw that if he told them what the spies had said - [that] the land was one that ate up its inhabitants - perhaps this would melt the hearts of the people now as well, and they would be afraid and intimidated from going [into the Land of Israel], like their fathers had done. Behold that it is because of this that he left out the recounting of the three things mentioned: God's command of the [mission]; Moshe's command to the spies regarding the land, the people and the cities; and the evil speech that the spies spoke. And about this did the Sages say (Yevamot 65b), "It is permitted to alter [the truth] for the sake of peace."