Deuteronomy 3 · a question people ask
Why does Moses say the LORD was angry with him "because of you"?
Moses says it three times in Deuteronomy: "the LORD was angry with me for your sakes" (1:37), "the LORD was angry with me because of you" (3:26), and "the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan" (4:21). Numbers gives the LORD's own words at Meribah and after: "Because you didn’t believe in me" (Numbers 20:12, to Moses and Aaron), "you rebelled against my word" (Numbers 27:14), and Deuteronomy later says the same, "because you trespassed against me" (32:51). What exactly Moses did wrong at Meribah, and the main readings of it, is laid out in Numbers 20. Both readings below keep what those verses say, that the verdict rests on Moses' own act (Numbers 20:12, Deuteronomy 32:51), and both take Deuteronomy's phrase as Moses setting it before the people as bound up with them. The two main readings of "because of you" below each rest on verses, and they are not exclusive of one another.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The people's quarrel was the occasion
Those who hold this view start from what happened at Meribah. The LORD's verdict came "in the strife of the congregation" (Numbers 27:14), after "The people quarreled with Moses" (Numbers 20:3). A psalm says, "They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes; because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips" (Psalm 106:32-33). On this reading, "because of you" (3:26) names the people's part in the moment when Moses failed.
Numbers 27:14 · Numbers 20:2-5 · Psalm 106:32-33
Moses shares the verdict on his generation
Those who hold this view start from where Deuteronomy first says it. Just after the LORD swore, "Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land" (1:35), Moses adds, "Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, ‘You also shall not go in there’" (1:37). They note the word "also", and that Moses speaks of his own end beside theirs: "I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land" (4:22). On this reading, "because of you" (3:26) sets Moses' exclusion alongside the judgment on the generation he led.
Deuteronomy 1:34-37 · Deuteronomy 4:21-22
The verses
“Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, “You also shall not go in there.”
“But the LORD was angry with me because of you, and didn’t listen to me. The LORD said to me, “That is enough! Speak no more to me of this matter.”
“Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance;”
“The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.””