Comentário sobre Números 14:20

כדברך [I HAVE FORGIVEN] ACCORDING TO THY WORD — i.e. because of what you have said, “Lest they say: ‘Because the Lord was unable, etc.’”.

סלחתי כדברך. As you said when I mentioned smiting them all with pestilence. Even when I said this, I had not intended to smite them all simultaneously; I had intended to let them all die, little by little, in the desert, preventing them from crossing to the land of Canaan.

ויאמר ה׳ סלחתי כדברך, G'd said: "I have forgiven according to your word." G'd meant that He had not forgiven the sin absolutely, only, -as Moses had asked- that He would not kill them as one man. This was in response to Moses' argument that otherwise G'd would be perceived as unable to conquer the Canaanites. At any rate, He would invoke His attribute of ארך אפים by spreading the punishment over 40 years. The following verses are all illustrations of what G'd meant by invoking His attribute of ארך אפים on the one hand, and swearing an oath that all of the people would suffer retribution on the other.

סלחתי כדבריך; I forgive immediately. The word is phrased in the past tense, just as Avraham had said to Ephron נתתי כסף השדה, “I have given the money for the field,” when he had not done so yet at all. He had meant that he had held the money available for the moment it would be required. Similarly, G’d had held His forgiveness in reserve awaiting the pretext to trigger it. (Genesis 23,13)

"I have forgiven as you have spoken": The forgiveness was complete, because each person lived out their days, but despite that they would not see (yir'u) the land, because that is a gift, and they were not deserving (re'uim) of it.

סלחתי כדבריך, “I have forgiven in accordance with your own terms.” The “forgiveness” referred to the people as a whole, meaning that He would not smite the people with pestilence immediately, and His forgiving the people would result in their children, at least, inheriting the land that had been promised to their fathers. However, He decreed that their carcasses would all be buried in the desert, each one of them dying at a predetermined date already set by G’d at this time. In the Book of Deuteronomy Moses makes mention of the prayer he had prayed on behalf of the errant people at the time of the golden calf, and he also mentioned his prayer on behalf of Aaron at that time. He did not, however, refer to the prayer he had offered on behalf of the people on this occasion. The reason is that Moses had not prayed to G’d to forgive the sin of the people, but that he had only tried to get G’d to temper the punishment. He had tried to invoke the attribute of ארך אפים so that He would defer the impact of His decree over a longer period of time. Had he mentioned his prayer to the generation of the children in Deuteronomy, these children most likely would have criticized him for not having appealed on behalf of their parents in stronger language.

Lest they say. But not because of your “words” — because you prayed for them and said “Please forgive…” (v. 19). For if not so, what is meant by “just as you spoke”? Surely “I have forgiven them” [alone] would be sufficient!

V. 20. ויאמר ד׳ סלחתי כדברך. Gott hatte bereits von vorhinein aus denselben, von Mosche hervorgehobenen Beweggründen ihre Verzeihung beschlossen, hatte mit V. 12 Mosche nur das angekündigt, was des Volkes Abfall ohne diese äußeren Rücksichten erheischen würde, um Mosche selbst einen Einblick in die Natur der göttlichen Waltung finden zu lassen, gleichzeitig ja auch ihm eine Gelegenheit zu geben, seine vollendete Selbstlosigkeit zu betätigen. Nicht das leiseste Gefühl von Bitterkeit hat sein Gemüt gegen das Volk, dessen Aufruhr ja zunächst gegen ihn gekehrt war, und nichts Verlockendes die glänzende Aussicht, ein zweiter Abraham, der Stammvater des verheißenen Gottesvolks zu werden! Nur einer solchen ענוה, einem solchen völlig selbstlosen Charakter ist es vergönnt, sich zu dem Erschauen der göttlichen Waltung, zu der, der göttlichen Einsicht entgegenkommenden menschlichen Einsicht zu erheben. Nur einer solchen ist die von allem Subjektiven ungetrübte Objektivität, möglich, die ein solches Erschauen voraussetzt (vergl. Schmot 6, 14-30 über die Vorbedingung עשיר zur נבואה). Psalm 99, 6 wird die Gottesnähe Mosche, Aharons und Samuels in der Erhörung vergegenwärtigt, die Gott ihrem Anrufen gewährt: קראים אל ד׳ והוא יענם. In diesem קראים ruht aber das א und es wird קורים gelesen, als ob es von der Wurzel קרה wäre. Wir glauben, dass in dieser Schreib- und Leseweise das Geheimnis entüllt ist, weshalb sie mehr als andere Sterbliche auf Erhörung rechnen durften. Mit dem, was sie von Gott erflehten, "begegneten" sie Gott, kamen sie Gott entgegen. Sie erflehten nichts Ungehöriges. Mit ihrem Flehen standen sie auf dem Standpunkt der göttlichen Waltungsgedanken und kamen den Erwägungen der Gottesgedanken entgegen. Es ist ganz das: סלחתי. — סלחתי כדברך. Wir haben bereits (Bereschit 24, 21) die Verwandtschaft von סלח mit שלח und צלח angedeutet. Hier haben wir סלח in dieser seiner eigensten Bedeutung. Durch die Versündigung des Volkes war sein ganzes Fortschreiten in die Zukunft gehemmt. Gottes Milde und Waltungsweisheit lässt es noch einem solchen Fortschreiten wieder zu.

'ויאמר ה, “Hashem said (in response to Moses’ plea): “I have forgiven in accordance with your words.” G–d teaches Moses that He has set aside a date in the calendar reserved for forgiving, i.e. the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.” This Day will serve as the day for forgiveness throughout the generations. To the question whence we know that G–d forgave the people the sin of the golden calf on that date, we derive this from when Moses had asked G–d to act as He had done “when the people had recently come out of Egypt,” (verse 19).The day G–d had forgiven that sin had also been the tenth day of the month of Tishrey. Furthermore, G–d having said to Moses here: כאשר אמרת “as You had said,” is a clear reference to the first time G–d had forgiven the people as a whole.

I have forgiven according to your words: that I will be patient with them (literally - lengthen my breath of my nostrils) and I won't kill them immediately.

סלחתי כדבריך, “I have forgiven, as you yourself have said,” i.e. the episode of the golden calf. Now, however, I am unable to do so. And have to demand what is My due.

כדבריך, I will not punish and kill them immediately, but will spread the punishment over the next forty years.

Another meaning of the word כדברך could be that G'd responded only because of Moses' having pleaded on behalf of the people, as well as the fact that one of Moses' arguments had been the presumed reaction of the Gentile nations if G'd were to wipe out the people all at once. We have already explained that Moses described the Gentiles' reaction as being either that G'd had ceased to be powerful, or that His powers sufficed only to overcome the Egyptians, not the more powerful Canaanites. G'd said (verse 23) ואולם חי אני, "in fact I am very much alive," in response to the Gentiles who would presume G'd to have faded away. Concerning the alternative reaction by the Gentiles that G'd did not have the power to disinherit the Canaanites, He said וימלא כבוד ה׳ את כל הארץ, that at the end of the period of retribution for this sinful generation He would demonstrate to one and all that He did have the power to carry out what He had said, that the seven Canaanite nations would be wiped out. G'd based His alternative plan of retribution and a degree of pardon for the Jewish people only on the honour He wished to bestow on Moses whose pleas He did not want to be perceived as having been rejected.

An alternate interpretation: “in accordance with your request.” G-d refers to two occasions when He had forgiven the Jewish people, once during the episode of the golden calf, and now for the sin of the people being misled by the majority report of the spies. On the first occasion His forgiveness had been more comprehensive, i.e. He had used more of His attributes in doing so. This is why He adds the words: “according to your words.” You yourself, by appealing to only a part of the attributes I have taught you to use when the need arises to appeal to Me, are in agreement that this situation cannot be compared to the incitement of the mixed multitude at the time when you had not returned from Mount Sinai for over forty days, and they thought you might not be able to return. G-d reminded Moses that he himself had agreed that the rules of justice were not to be bent, by omitting to appeal to this.

The author continues to find hints of this in the difference of the spelling of the word כדברך without the plural letter י i.e. כדבריך, which the rules of grammar would have dictated as the correct spelling. By condemning the generation of male adults who had left Egypt at the Exodus to die only gradually, about two and a half percent a year, G-d demonstrated that the principle of considering the positive accomplishment of the past generation when dealing with the younger generation had been considered by Him even here.