ואולם חי אני. ל' שבועה ולא פי' מה היא השבועה אלא אמר וימלא כבוד ה' את כל הארץ כלומר אם אעשה שלא יתחלל שמי בגוים לומר מבלתי יכולת ה' כי סוף סוף אתן להם הארץ אבל זאת אעשה להם אם יראו את הארץ וגו': ואולם חי אני, “Nevertheless, as truly as I live for ever,” this is a formula for an oath. Hashem does not spell out the details of this oath. He contents Himself with warning Moses that He has to be concerned with insuring that the whole earth will become filled with His glory. This is one of the reasons why the Jewish people have to be given the land He had promised that Avraham’s children would inherit. If this were not to happen His name would indeed become desecrated; therefore the children of the generation that had been redeemed from Egypt would be the ones that would prove that He had fulfilled this promise. The men who had been redeemed as adults from Egypt, however, could not be allowed to do so, seeing that they who had experienced all the miracles G–d had performed for them in Egypt had still not inspired them with sufficient faith that He could make them defeat the Canaanites. Their children who had not witnessed all these miracles would do so, however.