Another Chattypants assignment. Be sure to answer “yes’ to the concluding question so that your opinion will be fair and balanced. My opinion on this matter and the matter that matters today? It is perhaps unfair to compare what Israel is inflicting on the Palestine peoples with the Holocaust. But it is clear that Israel’s endgame is the theft of all their land. Thou Shalt Not Steal is a commandment that is being broken by Israel.
From Chattypants when asked if Israel is committing genocide.
There are several passages in the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament where God is depicted as commanding Israel to annihilate entire peoples, often described with terms like “utterly destroy,” “leave alive nothing that breathes,” or “devote to destruction” (Hebrew: ḥerem). These are some of the most frequently cited:
Pentateuch (Torah)
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Exodus 23:23–24, 27–30
God promises to wipe out the Canaanite peoples and commands Israel not to make covenants with them. -
Deuteronomy 7:1–2
“When the LORD your God brings you into the land… and clears away many nations before you… you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.” -
Deuteronomy 20:16–18
“In the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them… otherwise they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods.”
Joshua
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Joshua 6:20–21 – The fall of Jericho:
“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 10:40
“So Joshua struck the whole land… he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.”
1 Samuel
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1 Samuel 15:2–3 – The Amalekites:
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I will punish the Amalekites… Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
These are the clearest examples where God is depicted as commanding total annihilation of peoples.
Would you like me to also gather the later prophetic and historical reflections (where these commands are remembered, sometimes criticized, sometimes reaffirmed)—for example in Psalms, Judges, or the Prophets?