Numbers 14:16

Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which He sware unto them, therefore He hath slain them in the wilderness. Cf Exodus 32:11; Exodus 34:6. The intercession of Moses urged that the honor of the Lord would suffer if He carried out His threat, for the heathen nations would not accept the true reason, alleging instead that the God of Israel was, after all, unable to fulfill His promises. Having urged this one point, Moses immediately added a second motive why the Lord should execute mercy rather than justice.