[Serious] A Literal Bible. Answering questions

[Green Diogenes]

You left out verse 17:


17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said: 'Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be swept away.'

But as far as pointless punishments go, I think a better example is the fable of Elisha and the bears.

Boru

That's a very easy interpretation duality. 
It can be read as a "Do exactly as I tell you or I'll kill you" which seems to be how it is taken by "Fundamentalists" particularly in the USA and Africa, but it's more Biblically interpreted as "Get out exactly right now or you'll get caught up in this." The Old Testament is full of these. 
One of the main arguments in the New Testament between Jesus and the Pharisees is that they presented things like this in the former way, while he demonstrated himself as a personality to be likened unto God, and Jesus would have been undoubtedly speaking in the latter tone. That's effectively what the New Testament, Old Testament relationship is, stripped down. 

As for Elisha and the bears. It could be an example of imperfection in a person being written of. Most books in the Bible include unflattering events and personal details which seem to just be included for posterity, and probably to demonstrate that even the best people can act weird. It could also have been added by the Pharisees, as it contains the number 42, which is part of their numerology derived from Babylon. 

Elisha cursed some kids in the name of the Lord. Noah got drunk and bullied his son. Elijah was prone to tantrums, etc. The kings of Israel were always doing stupid things and having to sort each other out. It's not condoning the actions, just recording.

There's also a strong possibility though that the correct translation would be 'fighting age men' rather than Children, which does change the nature of the threat somewhat.