They spread an evil report of the land that they had scouted to the children of Israel, saying: The land through which we passed to scout it is a land that eats its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.
English: Rava expounded: The Holy One said, I intended it for good and they took it for evil — I intended it for good, that wherever they came a local notable would die so that people would be busy and not inquire after them; and they took it for evil, saying “a land that eats its inhabitants.”
Type of Learning
Reading events as divine assistance misread as doom.
What Is Learned
The empty streets were protection for the spies; they reported them as a deadly land.