(Numb. 34:2:) “When you come [into the land of Canaan].” This text is related (to Jer. 2:31), “You, O generation, understand the word of the Lord! Have I been a desert (<i>hmdbr</i>, voweled as (<i>hamidbar</i>) to Israel…?” Do not read “a desert,” but “have I spoken (<i>hmdbr</i>, voweled as <i>hamedabber</i>)” anything (<i>dbr</i>) to Israel that I have not fulfilled?<sup class="footnote-marker">25</sup><i class="footnote">Numb. R. 23:10.</i> With regard to the land which I agreed to give to them, did I say that it was beautiful and mislead them? (Ibid., cont.:) “Or a land of utter darkness (<i>ma'pelyah</i>)?” What is the meaning of “<i>ma'pelyah</i> (rt.: '<i>pl</i>)?” Did I, perhaps, promise you to bring you into the land and [then] delay you? After all, <i>ma'pelyah</i> can only mean "delay," as stated (in Exod. 9:32), “But the wheat and the spelt were not hurt because they ripen late (i.e., are delayed, rt.: '<i>pl</i>).”<sup class="footnote-marker">26</sup><i class="footnote"><i>Tanh.</i> (Buber), Numb. 1:2.</i> See, you will be entering into its midst, “When (according to Numb. 34:2) you come into the land of Canaan (<i>kena'an</i>),” [i.e., into] a land of business,<sup class="footnote-marker">27</sup><i class="footnote">Gk.: <i>pragmateia.</i></i> a land of trade. [The usage is] just as you say (in Is. 23:8 with reference to Tyre), “whose traders (<i>kena'anim</i>)<sup class="footnote-marker">28</sup><i class="footnote">Here the word usually translated CANAAN (<i>Kena‘an</i>) occurs in the sense of trader, as in Hos. 12:8.</i> the world honored.”