Moses said to Him: “They heard that You, the Lord, are in the midst of this people…If You kill this people as one man [the nations who have heard your fame will say: Because of the inability of the Lord to bring this nation to the land which He swore to give them, he killed them in the desert]” (Numbers 14:14–16) – [Do not destroy them] so the nations of the world will not say that the gods of Canaan are stronger than the gods of Egypt.
The gods of Egypt are false, but those of Canaan are substantial. “They will say regarding the inhabitants of the land” (Numbers 14:14). “Due to the Lord’s lack of ability [yekholet]” (Numbers 14:16) – because He did not have the ability to continue providing them with food, He took them out to kill them in the wilderness. The expression yekholet means nothing other than food, just as it says: “Twenty thousand kor of wheat, provision [makolet] for his household” (I Kings 5:25).
Another matter, [do not destroy them] so the nations of the world will not relate to You as cruel, saying: ‘The generation of the Flood came and He eradicated them. The generation of the Dispersion came, the Sodomites came, the Egyptians came, and He eradicated them. These, too, whom He called: “My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22), behold, He is eradicating them, like this Lilit,25The queen of the demons. who does not find anything, and turns against her children.’
So, it is, “due to the Lord’s lack of yekholet.”26This is expounded as though it says: The lack of victims to eradicate [lekhalot]. Moses said: ‘Master of the universe, “That with their very eyes [ayin be’ayin], You, [the Lord], were seen” (Numbers 14:14). What is “ayin be’ayin"? Reish Lakish said: That the scales are equal [me’uyan].
You say: “I will smite them with pestilence” (Numbers 14:12), and I say: “Please pardon” (Numbers 14:19). Let us see whose prevails, as it is stated: “I have pardoned in accordance with your word” (Numbers 14:20). Nevertheless, the decree of the Holy One blessed be He was not voided, as He said to Moses: “I will render you a nation greater [and mightier than they]” (Numbers 14:12), and He produced six hundred thousand from him, as it is stated: “But the sons of Rehavya were very numerous” (I Chronicles 23:17).27Rehavya was Moses’ grandson.
But in the future, the Holy One blessed be He will gather them, as it is stated: “Behold, these will come from afar, and behold, these from the North and from the West, and those from the land of Sinim” (Isaiah 49:12). The exiles will come with them; the tribes that are situated beyond the Sambatyon River and beyond the mountains of darkness, they will gather and come to Jerusalem. Isaiah said: “To say to prisoners: Emerge” (Isaiah 49:9), these are those situated beyond the Sambatyon River.
“To those in darkness: Reveal yourselves” (Isaiah 49:9), these are those situated beyond the clouds of darkness. “They will graze along the ways and on all the bare hills will be their pasture” (Isaiah 49:9), these are those who are situated in Daphne of Antioch. At that moment they will be redeemed, and come to Zion in joy, as it is stated: “The redeemed of the Lord will return and will come to Zion in song” (Isaiah 51:11).