Numbers 32:8

8 Whether your fathers did not so, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to espy the land, (This is just what your fathers did, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to spy out 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 To whom Moses answered, Whether your brethren shall go to battle, and ye shall sit here?

7 Why mis-turn ye the thoughts of the sons of Israel, that they dare not pass (over) into the place, which the Lord shall give to them? (Why would ye want to discourage the Israelites, so that they dare not cross over to the place, which the Lord shall give them?)

8 Whether your fathers did not so, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to espy the land, (This is just what your fathers did, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to spy out the land,)

9 and when they came to the valley of Cluster, when all the country was compassed, they turned into fear the heart of the sons of Israel, that they entered not into the coasts, which the Lord had given to them. (and they went as far as the Eshcol Valley, and then when all the land was surveyed, they came back, and turned the hearts of the Israelites to fear, so that they would not enter into the land, which the Lord had given them.)

10 And the Lord therefore was wroth (And so the Lord was angry), and he swore, saying,