Okay, I’m being a little facetious with the title to this post.  But, it’s so hard to write good title lines without doing that from time to time.  At any rate, Matt over at MandM has recently written on the “commands to commit genocide” in the Book of Joshua.  One matter he brings up is the potential use of hyperbole in those passages, which is something I have thought a lot about in the past.  So, I’ve been dialoging with him a bit in the comments bringing into the fray 1 Samuel 15.  I think this is a helpful post on an important topic and hope that some of you will participate in the discussion as well.

Related:

Does the Bible Justify Violence? – Review

Daniel McClellan on Religion, War and Peace

Ezra 9-10 – The Context of Today’s Reading Makes it a Tough One

Terence E. Fretheim on God and Violence in the Old Testament