On the other hand, Eugene Merrill, Daniel Gard, and Tremper Longman III represent the traditional view (again, see figure 0.1 in the introduction).3 These three authors each contend that the holy war commands are from God and thus represent perfect/pristine (no ethical imperfections) righteousness and justice, albeit within a particular time period and circumstance. While Christians may struggle with the holy war texts, any ethical difficulty is really a matter of our own inability to understand
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