As genocide takes its toll in accordance with verses in which we’re told, “You must purge the evil from among you,” the Bible is complicit in many of the wholesale massacres and slaughters we’ve seen in the modern-day world … in places like Haiti, India, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Uganda, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Nepal, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Lebanon, The Solomon Islands, Ethiopia, Bosnia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, and Cambodia. And certainly, of course, in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Nor can we forget the United States, whose history is filled with a lack of tolerance for those who are “different” from mainstream WASPs and whose support has contributed to the killing of many in lands near and far. Former USA President Donald J. Trump used the fascist terminology “vermin” to describe immigrants, as he shouted words then repeated by others, that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Organized murder, the deliberate killing of many people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group is genocide.

Sadly, it’s all around us.

For progressives and literalists, I wonder how many of these human slaughters can be attributed to the words not of God but men—Moses and the Apostle Paul, in particular: “You must purge the evil from among you.”

First found in Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible and the conclusion of the Pentateuch, Moses wrote these words in the form of a farewell address to the Israelites before they entered the promised land under Joshua’s leadership.

In Deuteronomy alone, “… you must purge the evil from among you” appears eight separate times … in 13:5, 17:7, 17:12, 19:19, 21:21, 22:21, 22:22, and 24:7. Later, Paul alludes to these verses but embellishes their word in I Corinthians 5:13, “But God will judge those outside. Remove he evil person from among you.”

Ironically, these words were turned inside-out, with Jewish people in their homeland and across their diaspora the victims.

As early as 605 BCE, Jews who lived in the Neo-Babylonian Empire were prosecuted and deported. Antisemitism was practiced by the governments of many empires (i.e., Roman) and the adherents of many religions (i.e., Christianity, Islam) and Jews were often used as scapegoats for tragedies and disasters—from the Inquisition and pogroms to the Holocaust, Hitler’s “final solution” for purging “the evil” he believed had infiltrated his Aryan nation, Jewish people have suffered unmercifully.

Now, the shoe is on the other foot as modern-day Israelites under the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are deliberately killing Hamas in Gaza … along with thousand of innocent people—Palestinians, young and old. Not that their attacks weren’t provoked or justified when, last October 7th, a barrage of at least 3,000 rockets were launched against Israel.

Hamas fighters breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians. The attackers killed 1,139 people: 695 Israeli civilians (including 36 children); 71 foreign nationals; and 373 members of the security forces. About 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, including 30 children.

The attacks consequently started the expansive Israel–Hamas war.

Every time these genocides occur, the world insists “never again.” But the political, religious, and moral blind spots that allow these atrocities will persist until anti-religious doctrines are disputed and the lessons of history are learned.

“You shall purge the evil from among you.”

Indeed.

Pastor, professor, publisher, and journalist Bruce H. Joffe is the award-winning author of magazine features, academic research, journal articles, self-help manuals, and newspaper bylines. His nine books deal with international (intercultural) living, interfaith theology, gender studies, “social” politics, marketing, and the media.