A Midrash read , “Gather "to Me" 70 men,” to indicate God's assessment of the elder's worthiness. The Midrash compared God's words in to the case of a rich man who had a vineyard. Whenever he saw that the wine was good, he would direct his men to bring the wine into his house, but when he saw that the wine had turned to vinegar, he would tell his men to take the wine into their houses. Similarly, when God saw the elders and how worthy they were, God called them God's own, as God says in , “Gather "to Me" 70 men,” but when God saw the spies and how they would later sin in slandering the land, God ascribed them to Moses, saying in , “Send "you" men.”