The walls of Jericho fall, and Israel kills everyone inside.

Men and women, young and old, cattle and sheep and donkeys: everything that breathes in the city is devoted to destruction. The city is burned. Joshua pronounces a curse on anyone who rebuilds it. And the text says that Jehovah was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the land.

This is the ḥerem of Deuteronomy executed in narrative form. Last week the command sat at the level of theology. This week it becomes a story, with real walls falling and real people dying inside them. The question the narrative forces is the same one Deuteronomy raised, only now it has faces: how do we understand a God who commands this, and whose presence is said to accompany it?