Numbers 32:8

8 Thus your fathers did when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

Numbers 32:8 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 32:8

Thus did your fathers
Meaning not particularly and only the fathers of these two tribes he was speaking to, but of them and the other tribes also, who acted much such a part; did not choose to go into the good land to possess it, when they were bid to do it, but were for sending spies first, which brought an ill report of it, and discouraged the people from going into it; the history of which Moses here gives:

when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to see the land;
called only Kadesh, ( Numbers 13:26 ) the reason of the name (See Gill on Numbers 32:13).

Numbers 32:8 In-Context

6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: "Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?

7 Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them?

8 Thus your fathers did when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

9 For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them.

10 So the Lord's anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying,