Numbers 14:30 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I sware to make you dwell therein— The phrase is not, I sware to you to make you dwell therein, but I sware, that is, to Abraham, to make you, that is, his seed, not you as individuals but as a people; for had that settlement been promised to them as individuals, it had been inconsistent with the divine veracity not to make good that oath; see Grotius de Jure Bel. and Pac. lib. ii. c. xiii. sect. 3. God's promises were made to the seed of Abraham; to the children of Israel; to the Hebrews, an abiding people; which was to subsist for many ages, though particular men were going off daily, as in all fleeting successive bodies. To that people, I say, the promises were literally made, and to the same people they were as literally fulfilled. The promise was not tied to certain persons, but to a certain people, and therefore might be performed at any time, if not otherwise limited, while that people subsisted. It is a very usual and a very intelligible way of speaking, common in all languages, to speak of nations in their national capacity, and to say we or you, not meaning it of the individuals now living, but of their ancestors or posterity; see Saurin's 59th Dissertation.