Kill the children

How can we explain God’s commands in a harsh world? | Marvin Olasky

U.S. planes bomb Berlin in 1944

Tisha B'Av, the saddest fast day in the Jewish calendar, begins at sunset on July 23. Jews remember it as a day of calamity: The first and second temples in Jerusalem destroyed on that day (in 586 b.c. and a.d. 70, respectively), Jews exiled from Spain in 1492, and so on.

Rabbis say disasters of this sort occurred because Jews did not obey all of God's commands. One harsh-sounding one that they did not obey was to wipe out the Amalekites, descendants of Esau who repeatedly fought the Israelites. (Haman in the book of Esther was a descendant of Agag, king of Amalek. Jewish lore claims that Hitler was also.)

A "wipe them out" command does not sound like it could come from a loving God. Sure, the Amalekites were the al-Qaeda organization of the time, and sure, God was saying these terrorists are so bad that you have to do what you normally do not do: Kill civilians alongside combatants. But kill the children?