Deuteronomy 1:22
And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.
And ye came near unto me everyone of you,.... Not every individual of them, but the heads of their tribes, that represented them; this is not to be understood of the present generation personally, but of their fathers, who all died in the wilderness, save a very few of them; but they being the same people and nation, it is so expressed:
and said, We will send men before us; that is, they thought it was proper and prudent so to do, and came to Moses to consult him about it; for we are not to suppose that they had determined upon it, whether he approved of it or not:
and they shall search us out the land: that they might know what sort of land it was, whether good or bad, fruitful or not, and whether woody or not: see Numbers 13:19
and bring us word again by what way we must go up; or, "concerning the way {m} in which we must go"; which is the best way of entering it, most easy and accessible, where the passes are most open and least dangerous:
and into what cities we shall come; which it would be the most proper to attack and subdue first.
{m} Krdh ta, "de via", Noldius, p. 117. No. 594. so the Arabic version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.