"The Torah is violent!" — Did you actually read why those battles happened?

People always bring up the bloody battles from the torah. They never go into it and realize:

1. This is not a commandment forever, this is a specific command for a spesific time. Unlike the quran...

2. God actually tells moses why he is commanding this extreme action:

Deuteronomy 9:4-5:

"Do not say in your heart when the LORD your God drives them out before you, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,' but it is because of the wickedness of these nations (בְּרִשְׁעַת הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה) that the LORD is dispossessing them before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations..."

There's also a complementary passage in Leviticus 18:24-28 where God lists specific practices (various sexual prohibitions, child sacrifice to Molech):

"Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these the nations I am casting out before you defiled themselves. And the land became defiled, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants."

The list continues — Deuteronomy 18:10-12:

"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, one who practices divination, a soothsayer, one who interprets omens, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, a medium, a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you."

3. This wasn't sudden. In Genesis 15:16, God tells Abraham this conquest will only happen 400 years later — why? Because "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." God waited four centuries for them to change before acting.

I hope this will shine a light on the subject for someone. Thank you

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