Genocide in the Hebrew Bible

In the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament), there are certain narratives describing occurrences of violence and warfare that are considered by some scholars and commentators to qualify as instances of genocide, particularly with regard to armed conflicts involving the Midianites and the Canaanites. Various interpretations have been given of these passages throughout history and of the notion that the Israelites acted on the command of God to wage war against and completely destroy a number of nations, including Amalek.

In contrast, some scholars have disputed the application of genocide as it is understood today to violent biblical events, asserting that such a label is anachronistic. Other scholars have concluded that biblical descriptions of violence are few and mostly hyperbolic, based on comparisons to the literary styles of ancient Israel's neighbouring cultures. Thus, in mainstream scholarship, the historicity of biblical accounts of certain events is a point of contention and much debate.

Some critics of Judaism and Christianity have cited biblical portrayals of violence to argue that the God of Abraham, who is venerated as virtuous and incorruptible in these religions, is actually a malevolent deity. In line with this criticism, these passages have been described as a means for inciting genocide or ethnic cleansing. More recently, analyses of whether the biblical incidents in question amount to genocide has frequently emerged in discourse concerning the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the most noteworthy focus of such criticism during the Gaza war, when his public remarks on biblical passages referencing Amalek were brought before the International Court of Justice as a component of South Africa's genocide case against Israel, wherein South African representatives presented the rhetoric as proof of an Israeli genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.