רמב"ן — סלח נא לעון העם הזה / ויאמר ה' סלחתי כדברך

Q — After the meraglim, Hashem says 'סלחתי כדברך' — yet that whole generation dies in the desert. So what was forgiven? Ibn Ezra: 'סלח' here means 'arichut af' — delay, not cancellation.

A — Ramban rejects: 'סלח' means cancellation (per Onkelos and Tehillim 'טוב וסלח'). What was cancelled was the original threat — 'אכנו בדבר ואורישנו ואעשה אותך לגוי גדול ועצום ממנו.' That national-destruction-and-restart was withdrawn. In its place: the generation dies in the desert, but 'כל אחד בבוא יומו' — no death is hastened, only no one merits the land. The whole arc explains a Devarim puzzle too: Moshe recounts in detail his tefilla after the Egel but never mentions a tefilla for the Meraglim. Ramban: that's because the Meraglim tefilla was not for full absolution — Moshe knew 'הדין מתוח עליהם ולא ימחול לעולם' and asked only for arichut af, omitting 'rachum v'chanun.' He omitted that tefilla from Devarim 'כי היו יכולין לטעון עליו' — the people would have complained had they known their leader didn't pray for total acquittal.