"and you said: Let us send out men before us and let them spy out the land for us": R. Shimon says: This was a great shame for Israel. When they said: "Let us send out men before us," the L-rd said to them: When you were in the land of deserts and pits, I fed and sustained you, how much more so when you come to a good and broad land! How shameful those men who thus asked for themselves!
"and let them return to us word": concerning which language they speak.
"the (straightest) way by which we should go up": There is no road without turnings; there is no road without traps; there is no road without branchings.