partly-formed thoughts on a difficult torah passage

This week's torah study largely revolved around one verse from Va'etchanan, Deut 7:2: "When God your Lord places [the seven nations in the land] at your disposal and you defeat them, you must utterly destroy them, not making any treaty with them or giving them any consideration." (Translation from ORT.)

(There are, of course, other places where this subject comes up too; the book of D'varim is largely repetition. This is where our study group is now.)

This directive makes many people (myself included) uncomfortable. How can God command us to utterly destroy people, when elsewhere in torah we're given strong ethical directives about how we treat others, including non-Jews? This doesn't sound like treating your fellow as yourself or dealing kindly with the strangers in your midst. As with many things in torah, I think it depends on how you read it.

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