Why order people to kill in god's name at all?

[Chad32]

It certainly is interesting that just after commanding them not to kill, god gives the Israelites a list of things that they can kill people for doing. Then later he promises to give them a homeland of their own... if they kill or enslave the current tenants (unless they are virgin girls). Only religion could make rape seem like a better option.

God promised the land long before the Ten Commandments.

GC

So he promised the land to the other people first? Doubtful, otherwise they would have just left and the Isrealites wouldn't have to fight. I still think it's stupid to tell people thta you rescued that now they have to fight and die for their new land instead of just giving them other land. I'd say it's just a group of people that needed new land after getting kicked out of their old land, not "freed" by a deity, and they decided to start worshiping a Canaanite war god to try to take other people's land.

This whole exodus story doesn't really hold water any better than the other stories.