(Bamidbar 11:10) "And Moses heard the people weeping by its families": R. Nehorai was wont to say: From here we derive that Israel were aggrieved when Moses charged them to abstain from illicit relations. For (before this) a man would marry his sister or his father's sister or his mother's sister. "weeping by its families": Because their hearts swelled in (this) sin many families joined together and he proclaimed this in public. "each at the door of his tent": We are hereby apprised that they waited for Moses until he left the door of the house of study, and they sat and grumbled.
"And the L-rd was extremely wroth, and in the eyes of Moses it was evil. (11) "And Moses said to the L-rd, etc." Here, the Holy One Blessed be He attenuates (His manifestation of wrath) and Moses exacerbates, whereas in the instance of the golden calf, the Holy One Blessed be He exacerbates and Moses attenuates.