No. Only the men and the elderly ladies. The women were to be taken as slaves and the little girls as "wives" to carry their seed and thus destroy the purity of the conquered city population. That was a big thing back then. Making sure you messed up their gene pool with your seed.
No. Only the men and the elderly ladies. The women were to be taken as slaves and the little girls as "wives" to carry their seed and thus destroy the purity of the conquered city population.
My recollection is that there were some instances in which they were directed to do that, but others in which they were commanded by God to kill everyone (and even all the animals) and were also prohibited from taking most booty. These cities were to be an "offering of destruction," that is basically a (human) sacrifice to God.
BTW there are factual as well as moral contradictions here. Not specific ones, admittedly, but VERY different general accounts. Some books in the Bible paint this very severe picture of the Israelis wiping out whole cities and engaging in existential battle with every city and king as they conquered and settled in the promised land. Other books give the impression that they settled in among the existing population with only sporadic and often minimal conflict.
Wolf