John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 4:21

"Furthermore Jehovah was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:" — Deuteronomy 4:21 (ASV)

Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me. He again records that it was because of the people's transgression that he was not permitted to enter the land. He mentions this not as a form of protest, and certainly not to accuse God of cruelty—as if he had been improperly and unjustly made to take the place of others as a criminal—but rather to magnify the goodness of God toward those whom He had treated with so much indulgence.

For we must observe the comparison: while they were to enjoy the land, he himself was prevented from entering it. Moses says, “I must die (he says) in this land” of Moab, while to you it is given to enjoy the promised inheritance. We perceive, therefore, that they are rebuked for their guilt in such a way that all the bitterness of the rebuke is sweetened by the awareness of God’s mercy. Indeed, by this sweetness they might be captivated by admiration when they understand how mercifully that pardon, which was denied to Moses, is extended to them.

The meaning of the expression which I have translated “for your words,”²⁴¹ might be “for your things,” since the Hebrews call people’s affairs (negotia), דברים, debarim. Certainly, although he had been driven to sin by their rebellious outcries, he simply states that he was then punished on their account. If anyone should ask why he lays the blame on them, even though most of the actual offenders were dead, the answer is obvious: many of them were still alive, and it is nothing new for children to be included with their fathers when the entire body of a people has sinned.

²⁴¹ A. V., “for your sakes;” (דברים.).)