Numbers 13 · a question people ask
Whose idea was it to send the spies: the LORD's or the people's?
Both are in the text. Numbers tells it from the LORD's side: "The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan’" (13:1-2), and Moses sent them "according to the commandment of the LORD" (13:3). Deuteronomy, where Moses speaks to the next generation, tells it from the people's side: "You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, ‘Let’s send men before us, that they may search the land for us’" (Deuteronomy 1:22), and Moses says, "The thing pleased me well. I took twelve of your men, one man for every tribe" (Deuteronomy 1:23). Neither passage says how the people's request and the LORD's command came together, so any order put on them goes beyond the text.
The verses
“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a prince among them.” Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of the LORD. All of them were men who were heads of the children of Israel.”
“You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, “Let’s send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.” The thing pleased me well. I took twelve of your men, one man for every tribe.”