I Hashem have spoken, “If I shall not do this to this entire evil assembly that gathers against Me! In this wilderness shall they cease to be and there shall they die!”
This Passuk seems to be a bit perplexing. What did Hashem mean by that which He said, I Hashem have spoken, “If I shall not do this to this entire evil assembly...” it seems that Hashem stopped mid-sentence, never finishing to say what would happen “If He shall not do this...”.
Furthermore, there are many names with which we refer to Hashem, with each one connoting, so to speak, another of Hashem’s attribute. The name as it’s written in this Passuk connotes Hashem’s attribute of Mercy. This seems to be out of place, for when Hashem is telling Moshe about His decision to eliminate all the sinners, it doesn’t seem to be a particular expression of Hashem’s attribute of Mercy.
After the sin of the spies, Hashem told Moshe אכנו בדבר ואורשנו – I will smite them with the plague and annihilate them. Moshe answered the following on behalf of the Jews. ‘The Egyptians will hear... that you put this people to death like a single man, and the nations will say... because Hashem lacked the ability to bring this people to the land that He had sworn to give them he slaughtered them in the wilderness’. Rashi explains that Moshe told Hashem that if He were to kill all the Jews ‘like one man’, i.e. suddenly and hastily, then it would be a terrible chillul Hashem, for the nations would say that it was because of Hashem’s inability to bring the Jews into the promised land that He eliminated them. After hearing Moshe’s argument, Hashem indeed modified the decree, telling Moshe that the sinners wouldn’t die all at once but rather over the course of forty years. Because it’s obvious that even before Moshe pointed it out, Hashem realized that annihilating all the Jews instantaneously would be a disgrace to His Name, why did He only change the decree after Moshe brought up this argument?
When the Jews sinned by the incident of the spies, their sin was so grave that the only way for them to receive atonement was by a swift annihilation. The rationale is as follows. Hashem initially gives every person two shares, one in this world and the other in the world to come, and one only loses them as punishment for his sins. Consequently, if a sinner would die immediately after sinning, without having a chance to derive any pleasure from this world, he would have essentially lost his portion in this world, and it would only be right that he shouldn’t also lose his portion in the world to come, for it isn’t fitting for a sinner to be penalized twice, by losing his share in both worlds.
Although Hashem obviously realized that this decree to annihilate the Jewish Nation so swiftly after their sin would cause His honor to be slighted, nevertheless, out of love to the Jewish People He was willing to forgo His own honor and annihilate the sinners soon after sinning, thereby punishing them by taking away their share in this world and thus preventing them from losing their share in the world to come. However, when Hashem informed Moshe of this plan, Moshe couldn’t bear the thought of the chillul Hashem which this sort of punishment may bring about, and therefore prayed to Hashem for this decree to be changed and for the sinners to die slowly throughout a longer period, although this would indirectly cause the Jewish Nation to lose their share in the world to come.
We can now understand the Passuk and all that Hashem said to Moshe. אני ה' דברתי - I Hashem have spoken; Hashem told Moshe, “Out of My Attribute of Mercy I have agreed to forgo My Honor and annihilate all the Jews right away, as I have spoken to you. On the other hand, you Moshe, argued otherwise and prayed for them to die slowly over forty years. However you must realize, אם לא זאת אעשה לכל העדה הרעה הזאת הנועדים עלי - If I shall not do this to this entire evil assembly that gathers against Me!, i.e. if I shall not do as initially planned, to annihilate them swiftly, במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימתו - In this wilderness shall they cease to be and there shall they die!”, they will need to lose their share in the World to Come as well, as is implied from the repetitive mentioning of their death in this Passuk which indicates their “death” in both worlds, as we learn in the Mishnah in Sanhedrin, דור המדבר אין להם חלק לעולם הבא (קח ע"א)וכו' שנאמר במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימתו – The people of the generation of the wilderness have no share in the World to Come as it says in the Passuk, ‘In this wilderness shall they cease to be and there shall they die’.
(זרע שמשון פרשתנו אות ו)
