NOTES for Num 12:16-13:33
The story in the Book of Numbers about the scouts sent to find out everything possible about the land that was to be conquered once again, and now with complete certainty, showed that the people were not ready for any war. Indeed, even from the appearance of the returning men, who were dragging a heavy cluster of grapes, it was easy to guess that no one had pursued them, just as it was clear that they had met no particular resistance. In principle, such a situation made the conquest of the land quite possible soon after the Exodus.
All that was needed was to move north from the oasis of Kadesh-barnea in Sinai, where the people who had fled Egypt were living at the time, into the area of Beersheba, and then Hebron, located in the southern foothills of Judah. That is exactly what the scouts did, meeting no serious resistance - which means the way was open, and the whole people could have gone by it, if they had not been afraid. In that very "if" lay the main problem. The people were afraid, and the scouts were afraid too.
In a panic, ordinary people can appear to be giants, and settlements surrounded by low mud-brick walls can appear to be cities with walls "up to the heavens." The fear was completely irrational, but they did not want to admit it - and then the "horror stories," partly "seen" and partly invented along the way, came into play. The most remarkable thing is that the whole people believed the stories, which would more accurately be called tall tales, and were also ready to return to Egypt rather than go into the land that was very close, within reach.
Of course, after entering Palestine from the south, the conquerors would sooner or later have had to face serious resistance from the local inhabitants, but on the road, which would have taken a sufficient amount of time, they could already have learned something, including warfare. The conquest of the whole land would not have been an easy stroll, but it was possible to settle in the southern foothills of Judah already during the lifetime of the first generation of those who had come out of Egypt. If, of course, the people themselves had decided to do it. They did not decide - and the prospect of entering the land was pushed back, and pushed back considerably. Now they had to wait until a generation changed. In this way human choices correct God's plans - and always not for the better.