Joshua 6:21

“And they utterly destroyed all that [was] in the city, etc.] All the inhabitants of it, by the direction of Joshua, and according to the order of the Lord, (<050701>Deuteronomy 7:1,2); being guilty of capital crimes, which deserved death, as idolatry, incest, etc. both men and women, young and old; neither sex nor age were spared: and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword; in which creatures chiefly lay the substance of the eastern people; (see <180103>Job 1:3).”

“Young and old - Being commanded to do so by the sovereign Lord of every man's life; and being informed by God before that the Canaanites were abominably wicked, and deserved the severest punishments. As for the infants, they were guilty of original sin, and otherwise at the disposal of their creator; but if they had been wholly innocent, it was a great favour to them to take them away in infancy, rather than reserve them to those dreadful calamities which those who survived them were liable to. Joshua 6:22”

“And they: The Canaanites were ripe for destruction; and God was pleased, instead of destroying them by a pestilence, a famine, or an earthquake, to employ the Israelites as the executioners of his vengeance. Had an angel been commissioned to slay them, who would have charged him with iniquity or cruelty? In all public calamities infants are involved; and tens of thousands of infants die in great agony every year. Now, either God is not the agent in these calamities (which opinion, though often implied in men's reasonings on these subjects, is not far from atheism); or they must consist with the most perfect justice and goodness. utterly: Jos 9:24, Jos 9:25, Jos 10:28, Jos 10:39, Jos 11:14;…”