"There is scant archaeological or related textual evidence to support any of these putative episodes of genocide described in the Hebrew Bible as historical events. But more important than the historicity of the described destruction of peoples and towns is the fact that the biblical rendition of genocide reveals what men and women of antiquity believed was possible, even likely, in the relations between nations, while at the same time setting precedents, patterns, and norms for the future. The leaders of the Hebrews—Moses, Samuel, Saul, David, and Joshua—implemented the will of God to commit mass murder. Sometimes, the killing was in righteous retribution for alleged acts committed against the Hebrews. But most often, peoples were attacked and eliminated because they lived in the land that God had promised to the Hebrews. Those eliminated were blamed for their own fate, a widespread phenomenon in mass killing that has repeated itself over the centuries. Sometimes, women and children were spared as slaves and concubines, or even taken as wives."
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Norman Naimark, Genocide: A World History (2015)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tanakh
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Tanakh
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