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The spoil of the cities which we took

This week’s Sunday School lesson in the Come Follow Me curriculum was Deuteronomy. Yes, the entire book. Which is ridiculous. There is so much in that book that can be discussed that it is such a disservice to rush through it like this.

Of course, we did not discuss vbery much from the book at all. Most of our discussion was focused in the 6th chapter. There was something in there that stuck out at me. I never got a chance to share it in class, as the instructor was trying to focus on positive insights people gained from their study this past week.

Luckily, I have a blog.

Specifically, verses 10 and 11 stuck out to me.

And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,

And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full

I draw your attention to a pattern that the author uses 4 times in these two verses regarding things the Lord apparently gave the Israelites:

  1. great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not
  2. And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not
  3. wells digged, which thou diggedst not
  4. vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not

The author claims that the Lord gave the Israelites cities they did not build, filled houses they did not fill, wells they did not dig, and vineyards and orchards they did not plant.

Now, the casual reader may see this and just think the Lord is just promising to give the Israelites blessings; however, there is a much darker explanation.

We have to turn to chapters 2 and 3 for the additional context

Deut. 2:32–35

32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz.

33 And the Lord our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.

34 And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain:

35 Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took.

Deut. 3:1,3,6–7

1 Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

3 So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.

6 And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.

7 But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.

The reason the Israelites had the great and goodly cities they did not build, the filled houses they did not fill, the wells they did not dig, and the vineyards and orchards they did not plant is because they took them all by violent force.

As they invaded the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, they massacred the people—every adult and every child—that took for themselves everything that remained.

Their actions were not in retaliation to something that Sihon and Og had done to them. They initiated the violence because they felt that this occupied land was supposed to be theirs.

Remember, when the Israelites migrated to Egypt, they were a single family: a patriarch, his sons, and their families. It was not the large people they had become after centuries in Egypt and decades in the desert. Other people lived in the land when Jacob and his family did, and other people lived in the land after Jacob and his family were gone for hundreds of years.

Assuming that the abhorrent violences detailed in these chapters actually happened, there can only by two explanations:

  1. God allowed—and possible commanded—the Israelites to commit genocide against two peoples, right down to the youngest baby
  2. The Israelites committed the genocide then retroactively created the scriptural narrative to justify their genocide

I guess it is up to each of us to determine which explanation makes the most sense to us.

Published by

Kim Siever

Radical left queer Mormon. I have been married since 1995, and we have 6 children. Served in the Utah Provo Mission.

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