(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 (hmdbr, voweled as (hamidbar) to Israel…?” Do not read “a desert,” but “have I spoken (hmdbr, voweled as hamedabber)” anything (dbr) to Israel that I have not fulfilled?²⁵ 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 (ma'pelyah)?” What is the meaning of “ma'pelyah (rt.: 'pl)?” Did I, perhaps, promise you to bring you into the land and [then] delay you? After all, ma'pelyah 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.: 'pl).”²⁶ (Buber), Numb. 1:2. See, you will be entering into its midst, “When (according to Numb. 34:2) you come into the land of Canaan (kena'an),” [i.e., into] a land of business,²⁷ a land of trade. [The usage is] just as you say (in Is. 23:8 with reference to Tyre), “whose traders (kena'anim)²⁸) occurs in the sense of trader, as in Hos. 12:8. the world honored.”

footnotes: ²⁵ Numb. R. 23:10. ²⁶ Tanh. ²⁷ Gk.: pragmateia. ²⁸ Here the word usually translated CANAAN (Kena‘an