In Numbers Chapter 31, Moses, under the command of YHWH, leads the Israelites against the Midianites and other groups. The Israelites kill all the Midianite men, take their possessions and children, and burn their city. Then when the Israelites meet Moses, he says to them, “Have you saved all the women alive? Behold, they caused the Israelites, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against YHWH in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of YHWH. Now, therefore, kill every male child, and kill every woman who has ever slept with a man. But of the young girls who have never slept with a man, keep them alive for yourselves?’”[49]
So here the Israelites rob a city and kill all of its people except for the female virgins (which the Israelite men will presumably take as wives)—and this is all under the leadership of the Prophet Moses, who explicitly commands the Israelites to kill women and children that were kept alive.
In Deuteronomy Chapter 2, it says that YHWH made Sihon’s (King of Heshbon) spirit hard and heart obstinate, resulting in the fight at Jahaz where “YHWH our God delivered him [Sihon] before us; and we smote him, his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, the women, and the children of every city. We left none to remain.”[50]
In Deuteronomy Chapter 3, YHWH delivers the Israelites the kingdom of Bashan, and it says, “And we utterly destroyed them? utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city. But of all the cattle and spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.”[51]
In Deuteronomy Chapter 7, YHWH commands his people to kill various nations, make no treaties, “destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire”[52] and “consume all the people which YHWH your God shall deliver you. Your eye shall have no pity upon them; neither shall you serve their gods—for that will be a snare unto you? Burn the graven images of their gods with fire.”[53]
What do these incidents tell us about the Israelites, their God, and their religion? And what kind of morals do they teach?
Can these be the actions of a chosen people being led by a morally ideal God? Can anyone justify butchering babies and children who happen to live within a certain region?
In another context bedsides the Bible, wouldn’t almost everyone consider a group like the Israelites to be a violent and misguided religious cult, rather than God’s chosen people following God’s commands and doing God’s will?
If a small modern ethnic and religious group performed a similar mass slaughter of another group of people, and asserted that they did so in order to obey God’s commands, what would we think of them?
Can a God-given religion really be so focused on invading, plundering, fighting, and killing?
I will admit that the last passage is among the most morally objectionable in the Tanakh / Old Testament.
However, these types of passages are not especially rare or isolated, and in fact, are actually quite common, and a main theme of many Tanakh books.
In I Samuel 27:8-9, it says, “And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites? And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, and apparel, and returned to Achish.”
In II Samuel 10:18, it says, “And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew 700 charioteers of the Syrians, and 40,000 horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there.”
Is one of the main objects of religion to wage wars and kill people?
Can God’s chosen people be a band of ____ led by leaders such as David?
And what about David? Though the Tanakh contains many references to or accounts of him killing numerous people, it also considers him worthy of being deemed YHWH’s righteous servant whose heart was perfect with YHWH[54], and who “did what was right in the eyes of YHWH, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him during his entire life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite[55].”[56]
If King David fulfills YHWH’s standard of a near perfect human being, then what does that say about the Tanakh / Old Testament’s moral ideals?
[49] Numbers 31:15-18
[50] Deuteronomy 2:33-34
[51] Deuteronomy 3:6-7
[52] Deuteronomy 7:5
[53] Deuteronomy 7:16, 25
[54] See I Kings 11:4 and I Kings 15:3
[55] The ?matter of Uriah the Hittite?: David impregnated the wife of his loyal servant Uriah, then tried to cover it up through trickery, and finally had Uriah killed in order to obtain his wife (see II Samuel 11)