בראשית, פרק ט״ו, פסוק ט״ז

The divine promise to Abraham regarding the inheritance of the land comes with a significant delay, revealing how God’s management of the world intricately balances the destiny of Israel with the moral standing of other nations. The fulfillment of this promise is postponed because various historical and moral accounts must first reach maturity [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. A central element of this timeline involves a wait of four generations. The primary approach among commentators is that this refers to the fourth generation of the exiled Israelites, defining a generation by the duration a person lives in a specific place [אבן עזרא]. This calculation begins with the first individuals who descended to Egypt following the onset of slavery, such as Judah, continuing through his son Perez and grandson Hezron, and concluding with his great-grandson Caleb, who ultimately entered the land [רש״י, חזקוני]. Alternatively, the count begins with Kohath, who went down to Egypt, followed by his son Amram, his grandsons Moses and Aaron, and finally their children who returned to the land [אבן עזרא, רלב״ג]. Conversely, other commentators suggest that the four generations refer specifically to the Amorites inhabiting the land. In this view, God’s attribute of mercy grants a sinful nation a grace period of four generations to repent. Only at the end of this period, if they fail to abandon their evil ways, are they punished with the loss of their homeland [רמב״ן, רשב״ם, פענח רזא].

The divine guarantee that the Israelites would eventually return to the land raises a logical question, as the generation entering had never actually lived there. However, because the Patriarchs serve as the root and essence of the nation, the arrival of their descendants is considered a true homecoming to their ancestral heritage [רבנו בחיי, מלבי״ם]. On a spiritual level, the land of Israel serves as the gate of heaven, corresponding directly to the heavenly Temple. Therefore, arriving in the land is akin to the soul returning to its ultimate root [רבנו בחיי].

The primary reason for the prolonged delay is that God does not punish a nation or exile it from its land until its measure of sin is entirely full and its evil deeds accumulate to the point of demanding destruction [רש״י, ביאור שטיינזלץ, הדר זקנים]. This accumulation of wrongdoing represents both the sin itself and its inevitable punishment, as the true penalty is a natural consequence born directly from the immoral act [רד״ק, רלב״ג, אם למקרא]. A deeper look at this moral balance reveals that as long as the Amorites had not reached a state of absolute wickedness, they retained a small measure of merit that protected them. Had the Israelites maintained a level of complete righteousness, they could have displaced the Amorites immediately upon leaving Egypt and entered the land much sooner. However, following the sin of the spies, the Israelites lost this perfect standing relative to the Amorites. Consequently, they were forced to wait in the desert until their entire generation was replaced, perfectly coinciding with the moment the Amorites' sins were finalized, leaving the local inhabitants with no remaining merit to shield them from destruction [אור החיים].

Although the territory was inhabited by seven different nations, the impending judgment is attributed specifically to the Amorites. Commentators agree that the Amorites were chosen to represent all the local inhabitants because they were the strongest, most aggressive, and tallest among them, making their defeat the primary challenge in conquering the land [רמב״ן, אבן עזרא, רד״ק, שד״ל]. Furthermore, the Amorites possessed a unique historical merit that granted them an extended reprieve: Abraham had once lived by the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, and they were his faithful allies. Due to this past relationship, more time was required before their sins could fully outweigh this merit and allow for their conquest [חזקוני, קונטרס חיבה יתירה].