They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. (Joshua 6:21)
Is the LORD the commanding motivation behind this kind of slaughter? Joshua thinks so. Israel's fighting men think so. Israel's theologians think so, for they see themselves as instruments of the LORD's justice. The LORD is punishing Jericho for its misdeeds. Israel does the destruction and slaughter on behalf of the LORD.
I don't doubt the sincerity of those beliefs. I just can't seem to reconcile a holy God with wholesale slaughter of men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys. "Holy war" sounds like the original oxymoron to me.
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