and all males put to the sword; "women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city — all its spoil" — may be taken as plunder and kept. any city within the specified inheritance are to be completely exterminated (20) exempting only the fruit trees.: 310–311 deuteronomy 21 commands the use of sacrifices to atone unsolved murders, and mandates a month-long period of mourning before an israelite warrior can marry a female captive. if the marriage doesn't work out, she is to go free without restriction. it also mandates the stoning to death of grown rebellious children who are gluttons and drunkards to "purge the evil" from among the people. deuteronomy 22 orders the killing of women who cannot prove that they were virgins on their wedding night, and of both the man and woman when a man sleeps with another man's wife. it also mandates the death penalty for a man who has sexual relations with a betrothed virgin, and of the virgin if she does not cry out for help when raped.: 312–344 deuteronomy 24 imposes the death penalty for the kidnapping of a fellow israelite, and forbids putting parents to death for crimes committed by their children, and vice versa.: 367–370 deuteronomy 25 allows for judges to have people punished in legal disputes by flogging, but limits the number of strikes to forty. "if men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity" (25:11–12). this chapter also urges the extermination of the amalekites (verses 17–19). deuteronomy 28 contains blessing and curses: blessing, including the defeat of israel's enemies, if israel obeys; and curses if israel disobeys. these curses include disease, famine, defeat and death in warfare, insanity, abuse and robbery, enslavement, and cannibalism due to extreme hunger. similar threats appear in the following chapter (29) and in deuteronomy 32. book of joshua the taking of jericho (jean fouquet, c.1452–1460) god commands joshua to take possession of canaan (joshua 1). the jericho-woman rahab aids two israelite spies, and she and her family are promised to be spared in the coming conquest if they hang a scarlet thread in the window (joshua 2). the israelites enter canaan, carrying with them the ark of the covenant.: 31 joshua conquers the city of jericho. the city is burned, and apart from rahab's family, every person, ox, sheep and donkey is killed (joshua 6).: 100, 101 joshua attempts to capture the city of ai, but fails (joshua 7). a second attempt, advised by god, succeeds. the city is set on fire and all the inhabitants are killed (joshua 8). several kings ally together to fight the israelites. the people of gibeon, learning of the city's destruction, tricks the israelites into a peace-treaty.: 140–142 when joshua learns of the trickery, he curses the gibeonites (joshua 9).: 133 when the king of jerusalem hears of the treaty, he and several other kings attack gibeon, who then call on joshua for help. god attacks joshua's enemies with hailstones, the israelites are victorious, and the enemy kings are captured. joshua goes on to conquer more cities but never completes the conquest (joshua 10). more kings gather to fight the israelites. the israelites defeat and kill them all. joshua 11 commands the hamstringing of horses.: 7 joshua finishes most of the conquest of canaan, with the exception of gibeon and possibly some canaanites and amelakites: "for it was of the lord to harden their hearts, to come against israel in battle, that they might be utterly destroyed, that they might have no favour, but that they might be destroyed, as the lord commanded moses." "and the land had rest from war" (joshua 11).: 68 the tribe of manasseh is given cities with canaanites they can't drive out, but joshua tells them that they will be able to (joshua 17).: 32 in joshua 20, god tells joshua to assign cities of refuge, so that "the manslayer that killeth any person through error and unawares may flee thither; and they shall be unto you for a refuge from the avenger of blood.": 43, 44 book of judges jephthah's daughter, c. 1896–1902, by james jacques joseph tissot (1836–1902) or follower, gouache on board, at the jewish museum, new york the book of judges contains a number of violent incidents. there is a graphic description of the assassination of the moabite king eglon, who defecates while rolls of his fat suck in the blade used to kill him (judges 3:22). later on, jael hammers a tent peg into an enemy commander's head while he slept after fleeing from a battle (judges 4:21).: 191 during a time of conflict with ammon, jephthah makes a vow to god that he will sacrifice whatever comes first out of the house and ends up sacrificing his own daughter (judges 11). towards the end of the book, an unnamed levite's concubine is raped, and dies shortly afterwards. the levite dismembers her, and has parts of her body distributed across israel to inform people about what happened (judges 19:29). this triggers a civil war between the benjamites and the israelites that kills thousands of people. books of samuel in the books of samuel, the israelites war with the philistines and are defeated at the battle of aphek. the philistines capture the ark of the covenant, but god makes his displeasure known, and they later return it. the ark arrives at beth-shemesh, where god slays fifty thousand men for gazing upon it (1 samuel 6). samuel urges israel's people to "put away the foreign gods" and serve only god, which they do. the philistines attack and are defeated at mizpah.: 291 saul is made king of israel and wars with many enemies. samuel commands saul "now go and smite amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (1 samuel 15:3).: 99 saul does not fully obey, which angers god and samuel. samuel kills the captured agag, king of the amalekites.: 107 david raises the head of goliath. josephine pollard (1899) david, anointed king in secret (1 samuel 16), comes into saul's service and "loved him greatly".: 117–125 the philistines attack israel, david slays their champion goliath, and they flee. david becomes popular, which makes saul fear him and plot his death. david and saul's daughter michal wish to marry, and saul asks for a dowry of one hundred foreskins of the philistines. david delivers two hundred, and becomes the king's son-in-law (1 samuel 18). saul again wishes david dead, but they are reconciled by saul's son jonathan. war comes again, david is victorious. saul again wants to kill david, and he flees with help from his wife. saul searches for him and slays the inhabitants of the city nob for aiding david (1 samuel 22). david defeats the philistines at keilah, then flees the city pursued by saul (1 samuel 22). david and saul reconcile. david seeks refuge with achish, king of gath, and claims he is raiding judah but is actually raiding and killing in other places (1 samuel 27). the philistines begin a war against saul. david's wives ahinoam and abigail are taken in a raid on ziklag, but he rescue them (1 samuel 30). the men of israel flee before the philistines, and three of saul's sons are slain. saul asks his armour-bearer to kill him, but is refused, so he takes his own life. the armour-bearer also takes his own life. saul's body is beheaded and fastened to a city-wall by the victorious philistines, but it is retaken by inhabitants of jabesh-gilead (1 samuel 31). a man tells david of saul's death and that he himself killed saul. david has him killed (2 samuel 1). a long war starts between david and saul's son ish-bosheth (2 samuel 3). david demands and is granted the return of his first wife michal, despite the public grief of her new husband palti. two men assassinate ish-bosheth, and david has them killed (2 samuel 4). david wars victoriously with the philistines. while transporting the ark of the covenant to jerusalem, a man called uzzah carelessly touches it and is killed by god (2 samuel 6). david defeats and plunders several enemies, and "executed justice and righteousness unto all his people." (2 samuel 8). the children of ammon mistreat david's emissaries, and are defeated by david's army (2 samuel 10). in order to make bathsheba his wife, david successfully plots the death of her husband. this displeases god, and david is told that "the sword shall never depart from thy house." god kills david's and bathsheba's child, that was conceived during her previous marriage. she then conceives again and gives birth to solomon. david conquers and plunders the city rabbah (2 samuel 11–12). david's son amnon rapes his half-sister tamar. absalom, her full brother, in return has him killed (2 samuel 13). absalom conspires and revolts against david. absalom is finally defeated and dies in the battle of the wood of ephraim, and david mourns him (2 samuel 15–19). sheba son of bichri revolts, but is ultimately beheaded (2 samuel 20). in 2 samuel 21, david has seven of sauls sons and grandsons killed, including "the five sons of michal the daughter of saul", though he spares sauls grandson mephibosheth. more wars take place. 2 samuel 23 names and praises several of david's warriors. the prophets and psalms characters like phinehas (num. 25), elijah (1 kg. 18:39–40; 2 kg. 1), and elisha (2 kg. 2:23–25; 9) killed, ordered killing, participated in killing and foretold killing in the name of god.: 15 elijah called down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, then followed this display of god's power by catching and personally killing all the prophets of baal; he twice called the fire down from heaven to consume the captain and the fifty men with him sent by the king (2 kings 1:10); elisha called bears from the woods to maul the 42 "youths" who mocked him, and visited leprosy on gehazi his deceitful servant, (2 kings 5:27); amos pronounces judgment on the nations including israel offering a vision of divine judgment that includes a swarm of locusts and divine fire; ezekiel said, "the word of the lord came to me" repeatedly pronouncing violent judgment against the nations and israel,: 7, 8 and a feminist interpretation of the book of nahum speaks of the "rape" of ninevah, the book's "fascination with war, and the glee with which it calls for revenge." as a response to the violence of the wicked, numerous psalms call on god to bring vengeance on one's personal enemies, for example ps. 109 calls for vengeance on the entire family as "payment" to the psalmist's accusers beginning with his children , including his wife and all his ancestors .: 12 psalm 137 speaks against babylon and expresses a desire to dash "their infants against the rocks". new testament a 19th century rendition of the cleansing of the temple. gospels in the gospel of matthew, herod the great is described as ordering the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of bethlehem. matthew 10:34 and luke 12:49–51 reference jesus as saying he comes to bring fire or a sword. g. stroumsa writes that these verses are sometimes interpreted as violent, but he goes on to reference theissen as saying they are actually about conflict in the family.: 179 the cleansing of the temple is sometimes considered to be a violent action by jesus. there are also multiple sayings of jesus that oppose violence, such as turning the other cheek and the passage about jesus and the woman taken in adultery.: 159 the earliest detailed accounts of the killing of jesus are contained in the four canonical gospels, with other implicit references in the new testament epistles. all four gospels conclude with a narrative of jesus' arrest, initial trial at the sandhedrin and final trial at pilate's court, where jesus is flogged, forced to carry his cross through jerusalem, and then crucified. the metaphor of sacrifice is used in reference to his death,