How God Shortened the Spies' Road in Forty Days

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Sh'lach 15:2

(Numbers 13:25:) "And they returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days." But behold, you find that they went from the south to the north, and in forty days they were able to traverse the whole of it. Rather, it was revealed before the Holy One, blessed be He, that they would come and speak slander, and that there would be decreed against that generation years of trouble (as it is said in Numbers 14:34:) "A day for a year, a day for a year, you shall bear your iniquities, forty years." And the Holy One, blessed be He, leapt the road before them.

Themes

Biblical References