Deuteronomy 2 · a question people ask
Why were the women and little ones destroyed too?
Numbers tells the battle in a few words: "Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok" (Numbers 21:24). Deuteronomy says more: "We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. We left no one remaining" (2:34), and "Only the livestock we took for plunder for ourselves" (2:35). Deuteronomy 2 gives no reason in the chapter itself; it says the victory was the LORD's: "The LORD our God delivered him up before us" (2:33). The honest question in Numbers 21 sets out the two main readings of why Israel utterly destroyed these peoples; in brief, each rests on its verses.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Judgment on these nations
Some put the weight on judgment. The LORD told Abram that his offspring would return in the fourth generation, "for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full" (Genesis 15:16), and Sihon is "the Amorite" (2:24). Moses later tells Israel, "Not for your righteousness… but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you" (9:5).
Genesis 15:16 · Deuteronomy 2:24 · Deuteronomy 9:5
Keeping Israel from other gods
Others put the weight on protecting Israel. The law to "utterly destroy" the peoples of the land, the Amorite among them, gives its reason: "that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done for their gods; so would you sin against the LORD your God" (20:17-18).
Deuteronomy 20:17-18
The verses
“Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was fortified.”
“The LORD our God delivered him up before us; and we struck him, his sons, and all his people. We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. We left no one remaining. Only the livestock we took for plunder for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities which we had taken.”