Комментарий к Бамидбар 13:32

אכלת יושביה [A LAND] THAT EATETH UP THE INHABITANTS THEREOF — “In every place which we passed we found them (the inhabitants) burying their dead". — But, as a matter of fact, the Holy One, blessed be He, did this (caused many deaths amongst them at that time, and so the Canaanites were engaged in burying their dead) for the best, in order to occupy them busily with their mourning so that they should pay no attention to these (the spies) (Sotah 35a).

AND THEY BROUGHT FORTH ‘DIBATH’ (AN EVIL REPORT OF) THE LAND WHICH THEY HAD SPIED OUT UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The meaning of this is that the spies left Moses and Aaron and [went around] saying in the [people’s] tents that it is a Land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.⁶⁰Verse 32. For at first when they spoke to the people in front of Moses and Aaron [saying] that the Land … floweth with milk and honey but that the people are fierce,⁵³Verses 27-28. and Caleb said, for we are well able to overcome it,⁶¹Verse 30. the people hesitated [between these two opinions], and there were some of them who [still] trusted in their power and strength, and some of them [who trusted] in the help of the Eternal against the mighty.⁶⁵Judges 5:23. Then the spies spread the evil report in front of the people themselves, as it is written, the Land through which we have passed to spy it out, is a Land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, etc.,⁶⁰Verse 32. until they caused the whole congregation⁶⁶Further, 14:2. to complain, this being the sense of the verse stating, and they returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the Land.⁶⁷Ibid., Verse 36. This happened because when the spies saw the [Amorite] people whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks,⁶⁸Amos 2:9. the fear of them was fallen upon them⁶⁹Esther 8:17. and they made the hearts of their brothers melt.¹³Deuteronomy 1:28. And when they saw that the Israelites were still considering going up [to the Land], and that Joshua and Caleb were encouraging them to do so, they invented a false report in order to frustrate their [intention of] going up by all possible means.
Know that he who “bringeth forth ‘dibah’” is a fool⁷⁰Proverbs 10:8. who speaks falsely, but he who tells a truthful [bad report] is called “one who ‘brings’ dibah,” as it is said, and Joseph brought ‘dibatham ra’ah’ (evil report of them) unto their father.⁷¹Genesis 37:2. This shows that when Scripture uses the expression “he ‘brings’ dibah” it means that he tells the truth as he sees, and when it uses the expression “bringeth forth” [which is in Hebrew a different verb], it means a false report. See also Ramban ibid., Vol. I, p. 449. It was for this [false report] that they were punished by death through a plague, as it is said, And those men that ‘brought forth’ an evil report of the Land, died by the plague before the Eternal.⁷²Further, 14:37. Thus, in speaking of the spies having brought forth an evil report, Scripture by using the word ra’ah (evil) wishes to emphasize that not only was their report false but that it was also of an exceedingly evil nature.

ארץ אוכלת יושביה, even though the people living there are strong, this is not a compliment to the land; rather it means that it is only due to their exceptionally hardy constitution that they were able to survive in that land. Ordinary people would die there because the climate is so hard to take.