Why did God command Israel to wipe out entire nations in the conquest of Canaan?
The Straight Answer
This is one of the hardest, most genuinely debated ethical questions in the whole Bible, and it deserves real weight rather than a quick, tidy answer.
What The Text Connects It To
Leviticus 18 directly ties the judgment to specific Canaanite practices, including child sacrifice, describing the land itself as vomiting out its inhabitants because of these things, before Israel ever arrives.
A Real Linguistic Question
Some scholars argue the conquest language, phrases like utterly destroy, may reflect common ancient Near Eastern military hyperbole rather than literal, complete extermination, pointing out that cities like Jericho show population again shortly after their supposed total destruction.
The Honest Limit Of This Answer
These points genuinely help, but this remains a difficult text that serious, faithful scholars continue wrestling with. No single explanation fully resolves every hard feeling this passage raises, and it shouldn't be presented as fully settled when it isn't.
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