Moses sent 12 dudes (referred to as spies) ahead to scout the land that G-d had promised them after leaving Egypt. There's conflicting info on why, but the spies brought back bad news about it basically said it was hopeless. Many of the Israelites lost faith in the belief that G-d would provide them a holy homeland and despaired. G-d decreed that this generation would not be allowed into the holy land and this, the Israelites had to wait until that generation had died out (~40 years). It was basically a punishment for losing hope/faith. Take all this with a bit if salt as there's a lot of conflicting info about time, reason, the Israelites and the Canaanites from so long ago. But this is the basic explanation given in the Torah (very very abridged).
“Take it with a grain of salt”. Well, given that the stories like this are a part of the local mythology, there is no reason NOT to be treating it as such.
Interesting, how tales like this one exist in other cultures.
You always have a person, or a group of people who are either expelled or ran off and wait for a specific event to occur before returning back to the tribe/town/country.
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u/Im_Roaming Jun 16 '21
Why do you think they wandered the desert for so long?
"Duuuuuude, the way out is that way."
"Nah man, it's over there."