God slowly killed the Israelite army

This is another strange one. For some reason God decided to slowly kill the entire Israelite army.

The space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them. For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed. So ... all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people. Deuteronomy 2:14-16

It's hard to understand, isn't it? But it sure sounds like God killed the entire Israelite army -- slowly -- over a period of 38 years.

It's not a very impressive killing, though, as God's killings go. He mostly just waited for them all to die of natural causes. Prostate cancer, heart attack, stroke.

But God claims to have killed them all himself, so I guess we should give him credit. How many old soldiers do you think died because "the hand of the Lord was against them?"

Well, they started off with 603,550 soldiers.

All those that were numbered of the children of Israel ... from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel ... were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. Numbers 1:45-46

And the only people that the Bible mentions dying along the way are those that God killed, which total a bit over 50,000. But I suppose some (maybe half?) of the people must have died of natural causes over the 38 year period. So I'll just say that God killed 300,000 soldiers.

---

The Friendly Atheist - How many people did God kill in the Bible?

God slowly kills the Israelite army.