“For you are coming to the land of Canaan” – this is what the verse said: “God is not a man, that He will deceive” (Numbers 23:19). Alternatively, “God is not a man” – does man not cause God to deceive; did the son of Amram not make Him reconsider? It is He who said: “Let Me be, and I will destroy them” (Deuteronomy 9:14). The son of Amram, arose and caused Him to reconsider, as it is stated: “The Lord reconsidered the evil” (Exodus 32:14).
Another matter: “God is not a man, that He will deceive” (Numbers 23:19) – when He says that He will bring good upon Israel, [then] even though the generation has incurred liability, He does not delay; but when He says to bring evil, He retracts it. “Will He say and not perform?” (Numbers 23:19) – know that he said to Abraham: “Look now toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you could count them.
He said to him: So shall be your descendants” (Genesis 15:5). He did so, as it is stated: “The Lord your God has multiplied you, and, behold, you are today as the stars of the heavens in abundance” (Deuteronomy 1:10). He said to him: “Know, that your descendants will be a stranger [in a land that is not theirs, and they shall be enslaved to them, and they shall oppress them, four hundred years]” (Genesis 15:13), but they did only two hundred and ten years.
That is, “God is not a man, that He will deceive” (Numbers 23:19) – for good;14God does not deceive regarding predictions of good matters. but regarding evil, “will He say and not perform?” (Numbers 23:19).15The Hebrew phrase can be read “That One said and did not perform” rather than as a question. He said to Israel: “For you are not My people” (Hosea 1:9), and then He said: “I will say to Not My People: You are My people” (Hosea 2:25).
“Will He say and not perform?” (Numbers 23:19) – He said to Abraham: “For I will give [all these lands] to you, and to your descendants” (Genesis 26:3), and He did not retract it, as it is stated: “For you are coming to the land of Canaan,” and He took them into the land.