It is artificial and anachronistic for people to look back at the economy of God in the Old Testament, and presume that God Himself is subject to our modern ethical sensibilities (whatever those might be). The Old Testament took place in the Ancient Near East (ANE). And God’s dealings with humanity at that time were in those conditions (sitz im leben). Often modern and postmodern people look back at the OT, and its “violence passages,” especially the ones where God commands His covenant people to wipe out whole people groups and nations, and wince. They try to explain it away somehow, as if the OT God is really just a projection and construct the Jewish people created, in order to justify their bloodlusty ways (e.g. Peter Enns et al.). But this is antiChrist (it is also functional, Marcionism). This is to impose our own self-projections onto God, in an attempt to conform Him into our own self-perceived images. God is God. As Samuel says: “God gives life, and He takes it away.” God is and His way is much greater than our self-possessed wills would ever allow for. God is not our domesticated house cat. Repentance is constantly in order.