Комментарий к Бамидбар 14:16

מבלתי יכלת וגו׳ BECAUSE THE LORD IS UNABLE etc., — “He is unable to bring them into the land on Canaan because the inhabitants of the land are strong and mighty; and besides, one king, Pharaoh, is not like thirty-one kings, who inhabit Canaan”. — This is what they will say concerning the inhabitants of this land (these kings): מבלתי יכלת because He had no power to bring them into the Land He hath slaughtered them (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 13).

מבלתי יכלת, "due to an inability, etc." This may either mean that the people would believe that G'd never had such power or that He had lost such power due to old age, etc. (compare Psalms 14,1). Either way, Moses could not envisage a greater desecration of G'd's Holy Name than to allow people to arrive at such conclusions.

Now the Torah explains first what would prompt the Canaanites to say what Moses assumed they would be saying if G’d were to wipe out the Jewish nation. They would recall that they had heard about what G’d had done on behalf of the Jewish nation, how He had displayed so much fondness for them in the manner in which He had redeemed them from their slavery in Egypt. If, in spite of this, He had now killed them in one fell swoop, this was not because He suddenly hated them, but because He realised that He could not keep His promise to them, being unable to overcome the 31 kings who banded together to resist the invasion of their country. Moses appeals for G’d to reconsider so that His Holy name would not be desecrated by the nations.

This is an abstract noun. [It is] not a verb in the feminine form. However [the word Hashem] lacks a lamed, and it is as if Scripture had stated “[lack of] ability of Hashem.”

V. 16. יכלת Substantiv wie יבשת המים (Bereschit 8, 7) קטרת etc.

'מבלי יכולת ה, “because of the Lord’s inability, etc.” the surrounding nations would not interpret G–d’s wiping out the Israelites as an act of punishment, because they had angered Him, but as an admission of His inability to fulfill His promise to them to bring them to the Land of Canaan. After all the gentile nations had had ample opportunity to have seen how much G–d loved His people as was described in verse 14. Therefore the only explanation of the demise of the Jewish people they could accept would be His inability to make good on His promise.

יכלת is a noun form.

העם, the people, etc. This verse is intended to counter G'd's intention to create a new nation from Moses' descendants. Moses argued that even this would be a desecration of the Lord's name. As long as G'd had not brought the nation to the land of Canaan His image would remain tarnished. Refer to what I have written on the word ושמעו on verse 13. The thrust of Moses' argument was that even though the Israelites had spurned their G'd, if He would retaliate by killing them in one fell swoop this would be a desecration of His name, world wide. When the Torah wrote in verse 13 "Moses spoke to G'd," the words "to G'd" may be a hint that his concern was for the damage killing the Israelites would do to G'd, i.e. to His image in the world.