RE: But to say that God did not order the absolute killing of everyone, i.e. every man, woman, child, and beast, is simply not true. It is spelled out very clearly, and was carried out per very specific orders, for very good military reasons.
Is there a difference between JUSTIFIABLE (Commanded by God based on His omniscience and wisdom) and UNJUSTIFIABLE genocide? (Killing for no good reason ).
Or is the moral argument this -— no genocide is justifiable and what the Israelites did was evil?
Justified or not? Guess it depends on what side you are on, kind of like every other conquest in mankind’s history.
My point is this, the Israelites were invading, conquest for land. No different than many before and after them. Use God’s commands as your reason? Ghengis Khan rampaged around for the same reason.
All of this does not change the fact, that in order to conquer land, you need to deal with those that would oppose you. Much of the time, this includes killing everyone and everything. Some may call that genocide, others will call it sound military strategy.
Myself? I am in the latter camp. No good military leader has ever left the enemy, unguarded and unopposed, to their rear. Well no successful military leader anyway.
The books covering the Israelite conquest of the holy land, and the books preparing them for it, read like a military conquest, because that is what it was. No different than any other in history imho.