This is what I think about when I think of him
Picture an Israelite man standing at attention in Joshua?s army. He?s fully equipped for battle. From helmet to armor to shield to sword, he?s ready to fight. But he?s not being instructed on combat with enemy soldiers, he?s being told that the walls of Jericho will be toppled by Yahweh and it will be his job to enter the city afterwards and kill everyone. He is being told that he is expected by ?God? to join with his fellow Israelite soldiers in a mass slaughter. Every living human and animal in the city is to die
This soldier isn?t ignorant about what these orders mean. He was in the previous battle at Ai where the same thing happened
He entered the city and, just like every other Israelite soldier, raised his sword over every man he saw. He stood before the Canaanite man who tried to hold off his advance while the man?s wife fled with the children into the farthest corner of their home. He stabbed and cut his way thru the ?enemy? and walked thru his pool of blood into the house. The woman of the house spread her body over the children in a vain attempt to protect them. He drove his sword deep into the woman?s body. She cried out. The blood shot out from the wound. The children screamed in terror. They watched their mother howl in pain as her body was carved into pieces. They were sitting in their own urine, shaking with uncontrollable terror as the soldier turned to look at them
He remembers the smallest child, barely more than just a baby. The smallest one was frozen with panic, so he ?dealt? with it, last. First he ?took care of? the ones that might try to run
The smallest one watched in total terror. He raised his sword. The older brother screaming, next the sister. Then it was time for the smallest. The panic overwhelmed. The sword found its mark. The effects of searing pain could be scene on the child?s face. Blood was flowing. It came from the wound. It flowed from its little mouth. And during the entire time it took for those few eternal seconds to pass, the child?s eyes were locked with his eyes. Eyes very much like the eyes of his own children. The children that sat on his lap and kissed him. The children that smiled as he walked in the door. The eyes that brightened when they wrapped their little arms around his neck
The smallest one he had killed in Ai was gone now. There was no more screaming, no more terror as he stood at attention. But he knew from the words that he was hearing that the carnage was about to return. There would be more men, more women, more children sliced by his sword very soon. But this time there would be no ?honorable? battle between soldiers beforehand. The walls would fall without a battle. This time, there would only be endless slaughter
Little did this Israelite man know just how endless the slaughter would be. He didn?t realize that he would be doing this butchering for years in city after city. But that?s what ?God? wanted, wasn?t it ? The great Yahweh had commanded and there was no choice
Centuries later, Christians would call this God, the God of love
But this Israelite man that lived and served under Yahweh?s genocides knew better
Deut 7:16, "... consume all the peoples ... Your eye must not feel sorry for them"
Isaiah 13:9, "Look ! The day of Jehovah itself is coming, cruel both with fury and with burning anger, ... and that it may annihilate [the land's] sinners out of it."
verse 12, "I shall make mortal man rarer than refined gold, and earthling man [rarer] than the gold of Ophir."
verses 15-18, "Every one that is found will be pierced through, and every one that is caught in the sweep will fall by the sword; and their very children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be pillaged, and their own wives will be raped. Here I am arousing against them the Medes, who account silver itself as nothing and who, as respects gold, take no delight in it. And [their] bows will dash even young men to pieces. And the fruitage of the belly they will not pity; for sons their eye will not feel sorry."
Ezekiel 5:11, 7:4+9, 8:18, 9:5+10, 16:5, 20:17, 24:14, Yahweh repeatedly exclaims that he feels no sorrow or compassion for those he kills.
Exodus 32:9-12, "And Jehovah went on to say to Moses ... So now let me be, that my anger may blaze against them and I may exterminate them, and let me make you into a great nation. And Moses proceeded to soften the face of Jehovah his God and to say: ... Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent he brought them out in order to kill them among the mountains and to exterminate them from the surface of the ground' ? Turn from your burning anger and feel regret over the evil against your people."
verse 14, "And Jehovah began to feel regret over the evil that he had spoken of doing to his people."
Israel fights Jericho
Josh 6:2, "And Jehovah went on to say to Joshua: See I have given Jericho ... into your hand."
verses 16+17, "Shout; for Jehovah has given you the city. And the city must become a thing devoted to destruction, it with everything that is in it belongs to Jehovah. ..."
verse 21, "And they went devoting all that was in the city, from man to woman, from young man to old man and to bull and sheep and ass, to destruction by the edge of the sword."
verse 27, "So Jehovah proved to be with Joshua ..."
Israel fights Ai
8:24-27, "And it came about that while Israel was finishing the killing of all the inhabitants of Ai in the field ... returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. And all those who fell on that day, from man to woman, amounted to twelve thousand, all the people of Ai. And Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. Only the domestic animals and the spoil of that city Israel plundered for themselves, according to Jehovah's word that he had laid in command upon Joshua."
Israel fights other cities
10:20, "... slaying them with a great slaughter ..."
verse 24, "... placed their feet on the back of their necks."
verse 26, "... put them to death and hang them upon five stakes ..."
verse 28, "And Joshua captured Makkedah ... every soul that was in it to destruction. He let no survivor remain. ..."
verses 29+30, "... warred against Libnab. Accordingly Jehovah gave it also and it's king into Israel's hand, and they went striking it and every soul that was in it with the edge of the sword. They did not let a survivor remain in it. ..."
verses 32+33, "... Lachish ... striking it and every soul that was in it with the edge of the sword ... not let a survivor of his remain."
verses 34+35, "... Eglon ... smite it with the edge of the sword, and they devoted every soul that was in it to destruction ..."
verses 36+37, "... Hebron ... striking it and its king and all its towns and every soul that was in it with the edge of the sword ... not let a survivor remain ..."
verses 38+39, "... Debir ... striking them with the edge of the sword and devoting every soul that was in it to destruction ... not let a survivor remain ..."
verses 40-42, "... mountainous region and the Negeb and the Shephelah ... not let a survivor remain, and everything that breathed he devoted to destruction, just as Jehovah the God of Israel had commanded ... because it was Jehovah the God of Israel who was fighting for Israel."
Israel fights more cities
11:8, "... striking them as far as populous Sidon and Misrephothmaim and the valley plain of Mizpeh to the east; and they kept striking them until they had not let a survivor of theirs remain."
verses 10+11, "... Hazor ... striking every soul that was in it with the edge of the sword, devoting [them] to destruction. No breathing thing at all was left over ..."
verses 12-15, "... all the cities of these kings ... striking ... sword ...destruction ... plundered ... annihilated ... anyone that breathed ... Jehovah had commanded ..."
verse 20, "For it proved to be Jehovah's course to let their hearts become stubborn so as to declare war against Israel, in order that he might devote them to destruction, that they might come to have no favorable consideration, but in order that he might annihilate them, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses."
Every Canaanite city experienced total massacre except:
11:19, "... no city ... but ... Gibeon ..."
9:8, "... Joshua said ... where do you come from ?"
verse 9, "... said to him ... very distant land ..."
verse 16, "... got to hear ... in their vicinity they were dwelling."
verse 22, "... Why did you trick us ..."
verse 26, "... the sons of Israel ... did not kill them ..."
10:6+7, "... men of Gibeon sent to Joshua ... save us and help us, for all the kings of the ... region have collected together against us. So Joshua went on up ..."
Every Canaanite city experienced total massacre except the one city whose leaders lied to the Israelites, Gibeon.
Israel fights Israel
Judges 19:29, "... took hold of the slaughtering knife and laid hold of his concubine and cut her up according to her bones into twelve pieces and sent her into every territory of Israel."
20:3-5, "... Then the sons of Israel said: Speak. How has this bad thing been brought about ? ... It was Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin ... landowners ... surround the house against me ... figured on killing, but it was my concubine that they raped, and she gradually died."
verse 7-9, "... sons of Israel ... we shall do to Gibeah. Let us go up by lot against it."
verses 13+14, "... And the sons of Benjamin did not want to listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel. Then the sons of Benjamin went gathering together out of the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the sons of Israel."
verse 18, "... inquire of God ... Jehovah said: Judah to the lead."
verse 21, "... Benjamin ... brought twenty-two thousand men in Israel down to ruin ..."
verse 23, "... Israel went up and wept before Jehovah ... inquired of Jehovah ... Jehovah said: Go up against him"
verse 25, "... Benjamin ... brought a further eighteen thousand men among the sons of Israel down to ruin to the earth ..."
verse 26, "... sons of Israel ... wept ... fasted ... burnt offerings ... inquired of Jehovah"
verse 28, "... Jehovah said: Go up, because tomorrow I shall give him into your hand."
verse 35, "And Jehovah proceeded to defeat Benjamin before Israel, so that the sons of Israel on that day brought down to ruin in Benjamin twenty-five thousand one hundred men ..."
verse 48, "And the men of Israel came back against the sons of Benjamin and went striking with the sword those of the city, [from] men to domestic animal up to all that were found. Also, all the cities that were found they consigned to the fire."
21:3, "And they would say: 'Why, O Jehovah the God of Israel, has this occurred in Israel, for one tribe to be missing today from Israel ?' "
verse 6, "And the sons of Israel began to feel regret over Benjamin their brother. So they said: 'Today one tribe has been chopped off from Israel.' "
verses 15+16, "And the people felt regret over Benjamin because Jehovah had made a rupture between the tribes of Israel. Consequently the older men of the assembly said: 'What shall we do to the men that are left over as to wives, for womankind has been annihilated out of Benjamin ?' "
verse 8, "Which one out of the tribes of Israel is it that has not come up to Jehovah ... no one had come ... from Jabeshgilead ..."
verses 10-12, "Hence the assembly proceeded to send twelve thousand of the most valiant men there and to command them, saying: 'Go, and you must strike the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, even the women and the little ones. ... every male and every female that has experienced lying with a male ... found out of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred girls, virgins ..."
verse 14, "Accordingly Benjamin came back at the time. Then they gave them the women that they had preserved alive from the women of Jabeshgilead; but they did not find enough for them."
verse 19-21, "... Look ! There is a festival of Jehovah from year to year in Shiloh ... So they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying: 'Go and you must lie in wait in the vineyards. And you must look, and, there now, when the daughters of Shiloh come on out to dance in circle dances, you must also come out from the vineyards and carry off for yourselves by force each one his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and you must go to the land of Benjamin."
verse 23, "Accordingly the sons of Benjamin did just that way ..."
David