#1
The spies returned from the Land of Israel with a bad report
The year was 1313 BCE. Moses sent 12 spies from each of the tribes to scout Canaan, which later became the Land of Israel. They were meant to bring back a report to the Jewish people, who were encamped in the Sinai Desert.
Many years before that, God had promised Israel to Abraham and his descendants and the time had come, following the miraculous exodus from Egypt, for the land to be settled.
However, it wasn’t to be.
When the 12 spies returned, 10 lied and said that although the land “does flow with milk and honey” and presented large fruits that grow there to the Jewish people, “the people who live there are very powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”
They also reported seeing giants, which they claimed could not be defeated.
Two of the spies, Joshua and Calev, silenced the Jewish people, who had begun to panic, and told them that the land was conquerable, that they should go now and take the land. They praised the land as well. However, no one believed them, and the Jews chose to stand with the other 10 spies' accounts.
Despite these two truthful accounts, the Jewish people cried and said they would rather go back to Egypt and die at the hands of the Egyptians.
This night was the 9th of Av.
The Jewish people were punished for believing the lies and slander of the 10 men, and God decreed that the Jews were to wander in the desert for 40 years.