Commentaire sur Les Nombres 14:34

את תנואתי [AND YE SHALL KNOW] את תנואתי — You shall know (realise) that you have removed your heart from following after Me. תנואה is an expression for “removing”, similar to (Numbers 30:6) “for her father hath removed her (הניא) from her vow” (cf. Rashi on that verse, where he quotes this phrase).

במספר הימים, we have a rule in halachah that שלוחו של אדם כמותו that when one appoints someone to act on one’s behalf the appointee is regarded as an extension of the one who appointed him. The spies had therefore not acted on their own, but as the people’s agents. Hence Moses, i.e. G’d, addresses the people as the instigators of this disaster. Their initial sin had consisted in wanting to find out if the land could be conquered.

יום לשנה יום לשנה ”a day for a year, a day for a year.” We would have expected the Torah to write the opposite, i.e. “a year for a day,” i.e. that the punishment for each day the spies had spent traveling the land and planning to slander it would be that the people would have to spend an additional year in the desert. Theirs would be nomads’ tents which flutter in the wind, an existence daily reminding them of their insecurity on earth. Not only that, but according to the context of the story mention of the punishment should have preceded mention of the sin. If the Torah wrote the verse in the manner it did it was to teach us something about G’d’s mercy which is manifest even while He metes out punishment.
When the Torah chose the wording: “a day for a year,” we must consider the fact that seeing the land of Israel has been described as an area of 400 by 400 miles, approx, this is an area which the spies could not possibly have covered in the space of a mere forty days. However, seeing G’d had known in advance that He would have to decree the punishment mentioned, He telescoped the distance under their feet so that they could cover it in such a short period of time. This is why G’d said: “a day for every year,” i.e. just like a father who is forced to inflict a blow on his son. He does not inflict a cruel blow but is as considerate as possible. The meaning of the verse therefore is: “here I have reduced the extent of your punishment as much as is possible by shortening the time you (the spies) needed to traverse the land so that it took only forty days. “

You diverted your hearts. The Torah calls the diversion of their hearts from Hashem, as ‘Hashem’s diversion from them’. Because given that they diverted their hearts from Hashem, He diverted Himself from them.

V. 34. תרתם ,במספר הימים וגו׳: die Nation durch ihre Botschafter, deren Verirrung sie sich auch angeschlossen. יום לשנה וגו׳: durch diese Zahlbeziehung des Zeitmaßes der Strafe zu dem der Versündigung wird diese während der ganzen Zeit der Strafe den Büßenden gegenwärtig gehalten. Diese Weise, durch bloß äußerliche Zahlengleichheit eine Beziehung dem Bewusstsein präsent zu machen, ist von den Weisen in ihren Anordnungen vielfach benutzt worden. So: ג׳ קרואים ז׳ קרואים כנגד ,וכו׳ י׳׳ח ,ברכות כנגד וכו׳ und immer ist die Frage: הני כנגד מי, und wird durch eine äußere Zahlgleichheit, wie hier, eine innere Beziehung vergegenwärtigt. — תנואתי, das Substantiv תנואה kommt nur hier und noch einmal, Job 33, 10 הן תנואות עלי ימצא, vor. הניא Hifil, heißt versagen, verweigern, נוא, Kal, demnach: Versagung, Verweigerung leiden, durch Versagung, Verweigerung in Erfüllung, Ausführung eines Vorhabens gestört, unterbrochen werden (siehe Bereschit 12, 10-13, Ende). Die Stelle in Job heißt daher wohl: Siehe, Weigerungen will er bei mir finden, d. h. er will so manches finden, das ich ihm verweigert, nicht geleistet habe. תנואתי hier wäre demnach: die von mir durch euch erlittene Weigerung. Ich habe euch den Weg zu eurem Heile führen wollen, ihr habt euch geweigert, auf meinen Willen einzugehen, ihr werdet die Übel kennen lernen, in welche der Mensch verfällt, wenn er Gott das Eingehen auf seine Wege versagt.

במספר הימים, “according to the number of days;” the letter ב in במספר has a dagesh, dot in it.

יום לשנה, on a specific day each year, i.e. the ninth of Av, according to the sages in Taanit 30.

וידעתם את תנואתי, “so you shall know My displeasure.” You claimed that I had planned to kill you by the enemies’ swords in order not to have to bring you to the Holy Land; now you will experience the reverse; you will live out your lives but to no purpose.

תנואתי; you will find out what it means to try and thwart My plans. (a reference to verse 43 when this “self-fulfilling “ prediction came true.).