Why Moses Could Not Cross Into the Land He Praised

Another interpretation (of Ecclesiastes 9:2): "Everything happens to everyone alike; one lot befalls the righteous and the wicked." Moses said [before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the worlds,] all are equal before You — "the innocent and the wicked [He] destroys" (Job 9:22). The spies provoked You to anger with their slander of the land, yet I, who served Your children in the wilderness for forty years — is there one and the same lot for me and for them? A parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who wished to take a wife. He sent emissaries to see her, whether she was beautiful or not. They went and saw her. They came and said to him: We have seen her, and there is none more forsaken and ugly than she. Her groomsman heard and said: My lord, there is none more beautiful than she in the world. He came to take her. The father of the maiden said to the king's emissaries: I swear that not one of you shall enter, since you disgraced her before the king. When the groomsman came to enter, he said to him: You too shall not enter. The groomsman said to him: I did not see her, yet I told the king that there is none more beautiful than she, while those men said there is none uglier than she; and now I shall see whether it is as my words or as their words. So too Moses said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the world, the spies spoke slander — "a land that devours its inhabitants" (Numbers 13:32) — but I did not see it, and I praised it before Your children, saying, "For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land" (Deuteronomy 8:7); and now I shall see it, whether it is as my words or as their words, as it is said, "Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land" (Deuteronomy 3:25). He said to him, "For you shall not cross over" (Deuteronomy 3:27). He said to Him: If so, all are equal before You — "the innocent and the wicked He destroys."