When the spies returned after forty days (verses 25–26), the Torah states:
וַיִּשֵׁבוּ מִתְּוּר הָאָרֶץ מִקֵץ אַרְבָּעִים יְוֹם: וַיֵּלְכוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל־אַהֲרֹן וְאֶל־ כָּל־עֲדַת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־מִדְבָּר פָּארָן קְדֶשָׁה וַיָּשִׁיבוּ אֹתָם דָּבָר וְאֶת־כָּל־הָעֵדָה וַיַּרְאוּם אֶת־פְּרִי הָאָרֶץ:
“And they returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days. They went and came to Moshe and to Aharon and to the entire congregation of Bnei Yisrael in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh, and they brought back a report to them and to the entire congregation, and they showed them the fruit of the land."
Who was the one who sent them? Moshe Rabbeinu. The halacha regarding an agent is that he should return and report directly to the one who sent him (Maseches Gittin 24a). Yet the spies did not stop with Moshe. They continued on to Aharon, and afterward to the entire congregation of Bnei Yisrael. In the next verse (13:27) it says: "And they told him and said: “We came to the land to which you sent us, and indeed it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit."
The Torah emphasizes “they told him," Moshe, because he was the one who had sent them. In fact, they themselves emphasize that they are reporting specifically to him as the sender, saying in the singular, “the land to which you sent us." Yet in practice, they delivered their words before the entire congregation.
