מדרש אויף שמות 32:11

Another matter: “These are the words” – this is what the verse said: “One who rebukes a man will later find more favor than one with a slippery tongue” (Proverbs 28:23). Rabbi Pinḥas said in the name of Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina: “One who rebukes” – this is Moses. “A man” – this is Israel, as it is stated: “You are My flock, flock of My pasture, you are man” (Ezekiel 34:31). What is “later [aḥarai]”? The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘In order to bring them after Me [aḥarai].’¹The word aḥarai can be a form of the word aḥarei, later, or aḥar, after, in which case aḥarai would mean “after me.” “Will…find…favor” – this is Moses, as it is written: “And you also found favor in My eyes” (Exodus 33:12). “Than one with a slippery tongue” – this is Bilam, who was slippery-tongued in his prophecies,²Bilam was slippery tongued in the manner in which he expressed his prophetic blessings of Israel, meaning that he flattered them excessively. and they [the Israelites] became haughty and stumbled in Shitim.³They grew haughty as a result of his blessings, and this led to their sinning with the daughters of Moav (see Numbers 25:1–3).
Another matter, “one who rebukes a man will later [aḥarai]” – Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said: What is aḥarai? The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Moses, as it were, rebuked Me to follow Israel, and rebuked Israel to follow Me [aḥarai].’ To Israel, he said: “You have sinned” (Exodus 32:30). To the Holy One blessed be He, he said: “Why should Your wrath be enflamed against Your people?” (Exodus 32:11). What is “why”?⁴After all, this was stated in the immediate aftermath of the egregious sin of the Golden Calf. Rabbi Yitzḥak said: When Israel crafted the calf, the Holy One blessed be He sought to eradicate Israel’s enemies.⁵This is a euphemistic reference to Israel. Moses said to Him: ‘Master of the universe, this calf is useful to assist You.’ The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘In what way can it assist Me?’ Moses said to Him: ‘If You cause the rain to fall, it can cause the dew to rise; You can produce the winds, and it, the lightning.’ The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘Are you, too, straying after the calf?’⁶How can you ascribe any power to this inanimate object? Moses said before Him: ‘Then, “why should Your wrath be enflamed against Your people?”’⁷Moses argued that God should not appear to be jealous of an object that actually has no power (Maharzu; see also Etz Yosef).
To Israel he said: “You have sinned a great sin” (Exodus 32:30). Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said: To what is this matter comparable? To a king who became angry at his wife. He struck her and expelled her from his house. The groomsmen heard about this. They went to the king and said to him: ‘Oh, my lord, is this what a man does to his wife? What did she do to you?’ They went to her and said to her: ‘Until when will you anger him? Is it your first time? Is it your second time?’ Moses, too, when he went to the Holy One blessed be He, he said to Him: ‘“Why should your wrath be enflamed against your people,” are they not Your children?’ When he went to Israel, he said to them: ‘Until when will you anger Him? Is it your first time? Is it your second time?’ Likewise it says: “In the wilderness, in the Arava, opposite the Red Sea.”⁸Moses, in mentioning these places to the Israelites, was alluding to various occasions on which they angered God.

(Deut. 3:24:) YOU HAVE <ONLY> BEGUN <TO SHOW YOUR SERVANT YOUR GREATNESS AND YOUR MIGHT…. > He said to him: You are the one who opened a door for me to pray to you.³Sifre to Deut. 3:24 (27). When? When they did that deed.⁴I.e., when they made and worshiped the golden calf. See Deut. 9:7–12. The Holy One said to him (in Deut. 9:14): LET ME ALONE, AND I WILL DESTROY THEM AND BLOT OUT THEIR NAME FROM UNDER THE HEAVENS. Moses said: Who would seize hold of the Holy One? One only seeks to pray for one's children. What is written there (in Exod. 32:11)? AND MOSES IMPLORED THE LORD HIS GOD. Moses said: Once I prayed for the community and was answered, but the community prayed for me and was not answered. Why? Because you have issued a decree over me <for calling them rebels>! But you were the one who began by calling them <rebels> (in Numb. 17:25 [10]): <PUT BACK AARON'S ROD … > TO BE KEPT AS A SIGN FOR THE CHILDREN OF REBELLION. Then because I called them <rebels> (in Numb. 20:10): LISTEN, YOU REBELS, you said (in 20:12): THEREFORE YOU SHALL NOT LEAD THIS CONGREGATION <INTO THE LAND THAT I HAVE GIVEN THEM>.

Another interpretation (of Eccl. 9:14): THERE WAS A LITTLE CITY, i.e., the desert; WITH FEW PEOPLE IN IT, i.e., the generation of the desert; AND A GREAT KING CAME AGAINST IT, i.e., the Holy One; AND BUILT GREAT SIEGE WORKS AGAINST IT. When? When Israel made the calf. What is written (in Deut. 9:14)? LET ME ALONE, AND I WILL DESTROY THEM. (Eccl. 9:15:) NOW THERE WAS FOUND IN IT A PERSON WHO WAS POOR AND WISE, i.e., Moses the Righteous, as stated (in Prov. 21:22): A WISE ONE WENT UP TO A CITY OF WARRIORS. (Eccl. 9:15, cont.:) WHO DELIVERED⁵The verb is translated in the past tense here and in various English versions. For the translation (used earlier in this section) into the English potential mood, see the new JPSA translation. THE CITY BY HIS WISDOM. Thus it is stated (in Exod. 32:11): < BUT MOSES IMPLORED THE LORD HIS GOD AND SAID >: WHY DOES YOUR WRATH BURN AGAINST YOUR PEOPLE? (Eccl. 9:15, cont.:) BUT NO ONE THOUGHT ABOUT (ZKR) THAT POOR PERSON. The Holy One said: If no one has remembered (ZKR) him, I am remembering (rt.: ZKR) him, as stated (in Is. 63:11): THEN HE REMEMBERED (rt.: ZKR) THE DAYS OF OLD: < THOSE OF > MOSES, {HIS SERVANT} [< THOSE OF > HIS PEOPLE].