(13:2) Send for yourself (שלח לך) men and they will spy out the Land of Canaan which I am giving to the Children of Yisrael. One man of every tribe of his father you shall send (תשלחו), every one a prince among them. And Moshe sent them from the wilderness of Paran by the command of Hashem; all of them men who were heads of the children of Yisrael.

Notice that the posuk starts by using the second person singular (שלח לך), but then switches to the second person plural (תשלחו). Also, since it seems that Hashem did not agree with the sending of the spies, why does the posuk say that Moshe sent them “by the command of Hashem”? And what did Hashem mean when He said “Send for yourself”, which is explained to mean “Send according to your mind”?

We can resolve all this by explaining that in fact Hashem did agree to send spies, but He only wanted to send two, Yehoshua and Calev, who were tzaddikim and who would certainly not speak badly about the land. And indeed, Yehoshua himself only sent two men to spy out Yericho. However, Yisrael wanted to send a prince from every tribe, and to this Hashem did not agree.

Thus Hashem said to Moshe “Send for yourself men” – the word men implying the minimum of two, and they should be “for yourself” – according to your mind, meaning tzaddikim like yourself who are in agreement with your mind, like Yehoshua and Calev. Hashem then continued “One man of every tribe of his father you shall send” – if you want to send a man from every tribe, it is you who shall send them without My agreement.

Thus the next posuk says that “Moshe sent them” – only the two of them, Yehoshua and Calev, “by the command of Hashem”. But “all of them” – the rest of the men who were sent, “were heads of the children of Yisrael”, and these were not chosen by Hashem.