Or HaChaim on Numbers 13:19/אור החיים על במדבר י״ג:י״ט

1 ומה הארץ אשר הוא יושב בה, "and what is the earth like that the people dwell on." In this verse Moses referred to the infrastructure and standard of living that the spies would find in the land of Canaan. Were the houses the people lived in of sound construction? Were their chattels of good quality, etc? We will find in Deut. 6,10 that Moses describes the towns and houses the Israelites would inherit in the land of Canaan as of good quality. Moses asked the spies also to find out whether the towns were planned defensively, i.e. as fortresses surrounded by walls or whether they were open cities, as these factors had great bearing on the beauty of the respective towns. Bamidbar Rabbah 17 claims that Moses gave the spies a sign suggesting that fortified cities were an indication that its inhabitants felt insecure, etc. whereas open cities testified to the people's confidence in their ability to repel any potential intruder. This is pure homiletics. The plain meaning of the words is that the questions all related to the quality of the land and that Moses took it for granted that the people were of exceptionally great physique and included giants. One did not have to send out spies to find out this well known fact. The only reason Moses referred to the physical prowess of the people was to emphasise the miracle G'd would perform in disinheriting these people of their land.