I would encourage everyone who reads these posts to read the context of those verses that @Maarten De Zeeuw cites. Then imagine yourself living in those times; would you have behaved any better? Also ask yourself: Were the Israelites actually ---behaving--- less bad than their neighbors? Because they were. @maarten De Zeeuw is trying to judge ancient people by modern standards that ironically are defined by Christianity telling us how to get more and more perfect like Jesus is. And pay attention to who's actually --doing--- the violence; in most of those verses, it's not God or the Israelites doing the violence. It's foreigners like the Medes/Persians doing the violence.