thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto
himself, above all people that are upon the face of the
earth.

The records of this Jehovah are full of similar horrors. He sent his
chosen people out to destroy the Midianites, and they slew all the
males, but this was not sufficient, and Moses was wroth, and commanded
them to kill all the married women, and to take the single women "for
themselves". We are told that sixteen thousand single women were
spared, of whom "the Lord's tribute was thirty and two!" In the Book
of Joshua we read that he had an interview with a supernatural
personage called "the captain of the Lord's host", and how this
captain had given to him a magic spell which would destroy the city of
Jericho. The city should be accursed, "even it and all that are
therein, to the Lord"; every living thing except one traitor-harlot
was to be slaughtered, and all the wealth of the city reserved to the
priestly caste. This was carried out to the letter, except that
"Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the
tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing"--that is, he hid some gold
and silver in his tent; whereupon the army met with a defeat, and
everybody knew that something was wrong, and Joshua rent his clothes
and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord, and
got another message from Jehovah, to the effect that the guilty man
should be burned with fire, "he and all that he hath."

And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of
Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of
gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his
asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and
they brought them unto the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said,