Deuteronomy 2:34

And we took all his cities at that time,.... As Heshbon, and others mentioned in Numbers 21:25, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones of every city, we left none to

By God’ s command, these being a part of those people who were devoted by the Lord of life and death to utter destruction for their abominable wickedness. See 20:16.

(34) And utterly destroyed.—i.e., devoted to destruction. They made them chêrem, like the spoil of Jericho. This could only be by Divine direction. The word implies nothing less. It will be seen, therefore, that the narrative asserts in this case an extermination of Sihon’s people by the express command of Jehovah.

34. And we look all his cities] E, Numbers 21:24 a, possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabboḳ ?; J, id. 25: Israel took all these cities and dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, Ḥ ?eshbon and her towns. Anciently this part of the Plateau was thickly populated. From almost every elevation several groups of ruins are visible, mostly Byzantine, but how much older each site may be cannot yet be said. The land is very good for corn. utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones] Devoted—put to the ḥ ?erem or ban—every city-full of males, with, etc. The first mention in Deut. of a custom practised also by other Semites. Mesha (Moabite Stone, 14–17) records that having taken Nebo from Israel he slew the whole population for he ‘had devoted it to Ashtar-Chemosh’; the same verb as in Heb. To Israel as to other peoples a war was from first to last a religious process (see on Deuteronomy 20:1 ff.) and the ḥ ?erem was the climax of a series of solemn rites. It consisted of the devotion to the deity, by destruction, of the captives and spoil. The name is from the root ḥ ?rm, ‘to set apart’ or ‘shut off’ (cp. Ar. ḥ ?aram ‘sacred precincts’ and ḥ ?arîm) and was not confined to war. By the earliest code every idolatrous Israelite was put to the ḥ ?erem, E, Exodus 22:20 [19]; cp. Deuteronomy 13:6-11 of idolaters, and Deuteronomy 13:12-18 [13–19] of an idolatrous city; P, Leviticus 27:28 f. In war the full process was the slaughter of the conquered population and their cattle, the burning of combustible spoil, and the oblation of the rest to the sanctuary. So in the story of the fall of Jericho and Achan’s trespass, Joshua 6 f. (especially Deuteronomy 6:17-19; Deuteronomy 6:21; Deuteronomy 6:24, Deuteronomy 7:1; Deuteronomy 7:11 ff.), which however contains many editorial additions. But as we see from several narratives and laws, the actual practice varied from time to time under the competing influences of religious feeling, material considerations and humane impulses. The most illustrative passage Isaiah 1 Samuel 15. Samuel charges Saul to devote all ‘Amaleḳ ? and their cattle; Saul spares the king and the best of the cattle. Either his excuse, that he reserved them for sacrifice, is an afterthought; or from the first he had been unwilling that the best cattle should be rendered by the ḥ ?erem unusable by the people in sacrificial feasts. Was the king moved by feelings of humanity? Samuel condemns his action as disobedience against Jehovah; so absolutely at that time was the ḥ ?erem conceived by the religious leaders. The deuteronomic directions, all in the Sg. address, distinguish between Israel’s treatment of the seven Canaanite nations and of Israelite idolaters on the one side, and their treatment of other nations at a distance:—(a) Deuteronomy 7:2 : the seven nations are to be put to the ḥ ?erem because of their idolatry and no league with them is allowed; Deuteronomy 2:25 f.

Utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city - Render, laid under ban (compare Leviticus 27:28 note) every inhabited city, both women and children: these last words

34. Utterly destroyed the men,… women,… little ones — Every inhabited city and its inhabitants. In these wars cities were often thus devoted. When captured the walls were razed to the foundation and the inhabitants put to death.