“For you are coming to the land of Canaan” – this is what the verse said: “You, the generation, see the word of the Lord: Have I been a wilderness [hamidbar] for Israel?” (Jeremiah 2:31) – do not read it as hamidbar, but rather: Have I spoken [hamedaber] to Israel?16Did I merely speak but not fulfill? (Matnot Kehuna). “Pitch darkness [mapeleya]” (Jeremiah 2:31) – what is mapeleya? Did I, perhaps, say that I would take you into the land, and I took you in late?
Mapeleya is nothing other than an expression of lateness, like the matter that is stated: “But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, [as they are late ripening [afilot]]” (Exodus 9:32). You are entering into it, “for you are coming to the land of Canaan.” What is Canaan? It is a land of merchandise in which there is trade – just as it says: “Whose merchants are princes, its peddlers [kinaneha] the eminent of the land” (Isaiah 23:8).