“That place he called the Eshkol ravine, because of the cluster [eshkol] that the children of Israel cut from there” (Numbers 13:24). “That place he called the Eshkol ravine” – that is what the verse said: “Telling the outcome from the outset” (Isaiah 46:10), as everything was foreseen before the Holy One blessed be He. Eshkol was Abraham’s friend,14Genesis 14:13, 24. and he was called Eshkol because of the eshkol that the children of Israel were destined to cut from there.
“They went and came to Moses, and to Aaron…. They related to him, and said: We came to the land…[and indeed it is flowing with milk and honey and this is its fruit]. But the people that dwell in the Land are powerful” (Numbers 13:26–28). This is the way of those who relate slander; they begin with something positive and conclude with the negative.