Page "Book of Joshua" Paragraph 48

Joshua " carries out a systematic campaign against the civilians of Canaan — men, women and children — that amounts to genocide.

" In doing this he is carrying out herem as commanded by Yahweh in Deuteronomy 20: 17: " You shall not leave alive anything that breathes.

" The purpose is to drive out and dispossess the Canaanites, with the implication that there are to be no treaties with the enemy, no mercy, and no intermarriage.

" The extermination of the nations glorifies Yahweh as a warrior and promotes Israel's claim to the land ," while their continued survival " explores the themes of disobedience and penalty and looks forward to the story told in Judges and Kings.

" The divine call for massacre at Jericho and elsewhere can be explained in terms of cultural norms ( Israel wasn't the only Iron Age state to practice herem ) and theology ( a measure to ensure Israel's purity as well as the fulfillment of God's promise ), but Patrick D. Miller in his commentary on Deuteronomy remarks, " there is no real way to make such reports palatable to the hearts and minds of contemporary readers and believers.