TO SPY OUT — literally to go about on FOOT (regel, a foot), the ordinary Hebrew word for reconnaissance and the one used of the men Joshua sends into Jericho. ⭐ It matters here because the book of Numbers does not use it. Twelve times in chapters 13 and 14 (and once earlier, at Numbers 10:33, of the ARK going ahead to scout out a resting place), the twelve men sent into Canaan tur the land — scout it out — and the whole disaster of that generation follows from their report; once more at Numbers 15:39 the verb is negated, of scouting after your own heart and eyes. Then at Numbers 21:32, and nowhere else in the book, Moses sends men to ragal Jazer, and they simply take it. ⚠ The two verbs are ordinary synonyms and Hebrew need not mean anything by the switch; what is checkable is that the book had been consistent twelve times running, and the exception is the one scouting mission in Numbers that goes right. → first discussed at Num 21:32