וַנַּחֲרֵ֣ם אוֹתָ֔ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשִׂ֔ינוּ לְסִיחֹ֖ן מֶ֣לֶךְ חֶשְׁבּ֑וֹן הַחֲרֵם֙ כָּל־עִ֣יר מְתִ֔ם הַנָּשִׁ֖ים וְהַטָּֽף׃
E as proibimos completamente, como fizemos a Sichon, rei de Cheshbon, proibindo todas as cidades, homens, mulheres e crianças.
Akeidat Yitzchak
The Midrash teaches that this is the source for the lesson never to condemn anyone until one had seen with one's own eyes. Even when the information originates with the Almighty Himself, this is not enough to condemn without personally investigating the facts. (8) Moses presumably burned the platform that must have been erected for the golden calf, not the calf itself. Chapter 32,20, may be understood in this vein: When Moses had observed the goings on in the camp, had smashed the tablets etc., he took the calf they had made, burned the trappings and ground the golden calf into dust, scattering the dust on the surface of the water, making the people drink from it. This would be in line with Deut. 9,21, "and the sin you had constructed together with the calf, I took and burned it, and I ground it into thin dust." Note that the Torah in our chapter had not stated "he took the calf and burned it," but rather "he took the calf they had made and burned in fire." (9) When asking Aaron "what did the people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?" (Exodus 32,21) What Moses meant was: "what terrible pressures have you been subjected to, that you could even have had a part in this affair?" Aaron's reply was simply "you know the people's conduct when they are evil." The reason Aaron's part in this whole affair is so brief, is not a cover up, on the contrary, since his intention to steer them away from sin had misfired, he could not be given any credit for his intervention. Moses saw that the people's behaviour was totally unrestrained. This was due in part to Aaron's intervention however well meaning it might have been. As a result, non Jews and even some Jews might argue that if even Moses’s own brother had had a share in the sin, how could one blame the people at large for such a sin! It is in this context that we must understand Moses’s apparent accusation against Aaron. So, Moses positioned himself at the gate, and called for volunteers to deal with those who had danced around the calf. If Aaron's own tribe volunteered and killed three thousand of their fellow Jews and no one protested, this could only have been because they knew that Aaron's intentions had been pure, and that his involvement in the unhappy outcome had been due to circumstances he had not foreseen.