God commands Israel to destroy entire populations.

Complete destruction: men, women, children, livestock, every living thing. The Hebrew word is ḥerem: the ban, total consecration to destruction, the complete removal of a people from the land God is giving to Israel. Deuteronomy states this command plainly and repeatedly: when Jehovah delivers these nations into your hand, you shall devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them. You shall show them no mercy.

This is the hardest moral terrain in the entire Old Testament. It demands honest engagement without either defensive dismissal or comfortable theological resolution. Some difficulties deserve to remain difficult.