You said something else to God. David said before the Almighty, "Even though I was a king, Your Kingship is upon me." The Almighty replied, "I don't hold your goodness against you, but to whom do I hold the Saints in the land? The Almighty doesn't call the righteous holy until they are given the land and until the day of death.
Why did the Evil Inclination make people in this world and not believe in them until the day of death? Similarly, Solomon said, "There is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Therefore, one is not called holy until they are given the land. Even the Patriarchs were not called holy until they were given the land.
As it says, "Behold, in His holy ones He will not trust" (Job 15:15). And when did He trust them? When He said to Moses, "Go and gather the elders of Israel" (Exodus 3:16). From this, Moses inferred and said, "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants" (Exodus 32:13).
Rabbi Pinchas said, "The forefathers of the world wanted their dwelling to be above, and even so, they were not called holy until they were given the land and the exile was closed before them." Rabbi Chama asked, "What is the verse that states, 'He drags the mighty with His power'? This is the Evil Inclination. 'Mighty with his power' refers to the generation of Enosh, the generation of the Flood, the generation of the Dispersion, and the people of Sodom, as it is written, 'In pain shall you eat of it' (Genesis 3:17), and it says, 'I will increase your pain and your travail' (Genesis 3:16).
He increased their pain, referring to the forefathers of the world. Did they lose anything? Scripture says, 'I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood' (Psalm 16:4). As we learned, they went down and returned from the war and recited the Shema in the chamber of hewn stone....