Why does God give contradictory commands in the Bible?

[Compassionist]

The Bible presents a serious moral contradiction. In the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17), God explicitly says:

“Thou shalt not kill” (or more accurately in Hebrew, *lo tirtsach* — “you shall not murder”).

Yet, throughout the very same scriptures, this same God commands genocides and mass killings. For example:

Deuteronomy 20:16–17:

“You shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them — the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

1 Samuel 15:3:

“Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

Numbers 31:17–18:

“Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.”

If “murder” means intentionally taking a human life, then these divine commands directly violate the very moral law God is said to have given.

Apologists often respond in one of three ways:

1. “Killing in war isn’t murder.”
But these passages go far beyond war — they include killing infants and non-combatants. Calling it “warfare” doesn’t make it morally right, especially when commanded by an allegedly all-good being.

2. “Those people were wicked and deserved it.”
But collective punishment of entire populations, including children, contradicts basic moral justice — even within the Bible itself. Ezekiel 18:20 says:

“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father.”
So how can innocent children deserve death for their ancestors’ actions?

3. “God’s morality is beyond human understanding.”
This argument essentially abandons moral reasoning. If God’s morality can justify genocide, then anything — slavery, rape, torture — could be justified as “God’s higher purpose.” That makes morality arbitrary and destroys the very meaning of good and evil.

In short:
If the command “Thou shalt not murder” is absolute, then the genocidal commands are immoral.
If the genocidal commands are moral because God gave them, then “Thou shalt not murder” has no fixed moral meaning.

Either way, the Bible presents a contradiction that cannot be ethically reconciled without abandoning either moral consistency or divine goodness.

[BruceLeiter]

[Replying to Seydelor in post #117]

@Seydelor, yes, Jesus did claim to be God with the Father and the Holy Spirit as the one true God. He did several times in the Gospel of John in discussions with the crowds and his disciples:

1. Joh 6:35  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."

2. Joh 8:12  Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 

3. Joh 8:42  Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me."
Joh 8:54  Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’"
Joh 8:58  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 
Joh 8:59  So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (The crowd knew that Jesus had claimed to be God.)

4. Joh 9:5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (Then, he healed a man who was born blind.)

5. Joh 10:7  So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 
Joh 10:8  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 
Joh 10:9  I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 
Joh 10:10  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 
Joh 10:11  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (Thus, he claims to be David's Shepherd in Psalm 23:1)  
Joh 10:12  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 
Joh 10:13  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 
Joh 10:14  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 
Joh 10:15  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. (He was fully human in order to die for believers and fully God so that he could rise again.)
Joh 10:27  "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 
Joh 10:28  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 
Joh 10:29  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 
Joh 10:30  I and the Father are one.”
Joh 10:31  The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 
Joh 10:32  Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 
Joh 10:33  The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 
Joh 10:37  "If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 
Joh 10:38  but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 
Joh 10:39  Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. 

6. Joh 11:25  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 
Joh 11:26  and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (Then, he raised Lazurus from the dead after he was dead four days.)

7. Joh 14:7  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 
Joh 14:8  Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 
Joh 14:9  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 
Joh 14:10  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 
Joh 14:11  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves."
Joh 14:15  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 
Joh 14:16  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 
Joh 14:17  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you."

All of Jesus' "I am" claims identify him directly with Yahweh, who appeared to Moses in the unburnable burning bush on Mt. Sinai, as follows:
Exo 3:13  Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 
Exo 3:14  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 
Exo 3:15  God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."
     

[Seydelor]

[Replying to BruceLeiter in post #121]
All you've done is quote dozens of verses that prove absolutely NOTHING. Maybe a more concise approach would be better for discussion.

[Clownboat]

@Clownboat, people don't always act logically to the fact that they were out of food and clean water along with the presence of Egyptians who stirred them up to rebel against God.

I never claimed that people always act logically. The story about the golden cow is illogical (due to the recent miracles that they observed) and blaming the presence of some Egyptians doesn't make it not illogical.
Yes, abandoning the God that recently saved you for a golden cow God was illogical, except if there are Egyptians around. Then it's logical. <---- This doesn't fly IMO.
Why? I'm glad you asked... If you witnessed the Christian God doing over 10 miracles to save you and your family, would you abandon this God for Allah if there was a Muslim presence near you?

Logic doesn't cut it when basic needs are at stake.

This would be when using logic would be most important in fact.

The golden calf was one of the gods of Egypt,

Fails to address how a very real God that had recently sent the plagues and parted the Red Sea for them was abandoned for this cow God. Where the cow God idea came from is irrelevant.

and Moses was gone 40 days on Mount Sinai.

Which trip up the mountain? Never mind, it's irrelevant.

[BruceLeiter]

[Replying to Clownboat in post #123]

All I have to say is, whoever said that mobs act logically. You're right to say that they acted illogically, @Clownboat.

[Clownboat]

God is loving, but he's also just with perfect justice in punishing sin. That's why he sent Jesus as the God-man to die in taking the Father's justice on himself in the place of all believers to give them the Father's love.

If you read the Bible, that God is violent, ignorant and most importantly, never solves the problem at hand. It portrays an ineffective punishing god concept if we are being honest.

In Genesis chapter 3, this God curses Satan to crawl on his belly and eat dirt for the rest of his days. Was this curse effective and intelligent? What did it solve?
In this same chapter, this God curses Eve with greatly multiplied pain in childbirth. Was this curse effective and intelligent? What did it solve?
What did kicking them out of the garden solve?
This God flooded the entire planet killing the animals too, just to try to rid the world of sinners. A violent and ignorant attempt that failed as humans continued to sin.
This God hardened the heart of Pharaoh whom he was trying to get to release slaves. Not intelligent.
This God commanded men not to kill and then commanded them to stone people to death for all manner of petty things.
This God of the Bible seemingly became so frustrated with its own inability to solve problems that in an act that seems like extreme desperation he sends his only son to earth to try to fix the mess. However, even his son seemed to have failed and was eventually brutally beaten and crucified at the request of this God's very own Chief Priests.

I fear you are just repeating religious platitudes by saying that the God of the Bible is loving and perfectly just. Perhaps if I had never read the Bible I would be more apt to believe such claims?

<snipped some Bible verses>

[Clownboat]

All I have to say is, whoever said that mobs act logically. You're right to say that they acted illogically, @Clownboat.

Sadly, that is all you had to say.
Things you were unwilling to discuss:

1. Do you see any illogic in abandoning a God that literally just sent plagues and parted a sea for them, for a cow God they created from their jewelry?
2. Or do you really see it as a logical decision? One that you yourself would have likely made had you been in their position like another poster here would have?

Here is how this conversation has gone:
The plagues and parting of the Red Sea were brought up.
Then it was noted how in a short amount of time this god concept that did these things was abandoned for a golden cow god concept and that seem illogical.
And your reply was: "You're right to say that they acted illogically."
Your reply justifies my withholding of belief in the said claim, because we both agree it would be illogical if it happened as told. I assume you are also currently withholding belief in the story for the same reasoning.

[BruceLeiter]

[Replying to Clownboat in post #125]

@Clownboat, when you call God "ignorant," both of us will stand before our divine Judge, Jesus, some day and have to give account for every statement we made in life, and if we have not turned away from our life's statement that disrespected him, we will be banished from his presence forever, which is what many people have wanted all along. Be careful what you say about him, because he is the real, just Judge who made us and thus has the right to judge us, as to whether or not we have accepted Jesus as the only way to the Father's approval. I'm afraid for you.

Mat 25:31  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 
Mat 25:32  Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 
Mat 25:33  And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 
Mat 25:34  Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world....
Mat 25:41  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels....
Mat 25:46  And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  

[Clownboat]

[Replying to Clownboat in post #125]

@Clownboat, when you call God "ignorant," both of us will stand before our divine Judge, Jesus, some day and have to give account for every statement we made in life, and if we have not turned away from our life's statement that disrespected him, we will be banished from his presence forever, which is what many people have wanted all along. Be careful what you say about him, because he is the real, just Judge who made us and thus has the right to judge us, as to whether or not we have accepted Jesus as the only way to the Father's approval. I'm afraid for you.

Hey Bruce, please show that you speak the truth or kindly retract your claims for being empty and not in evidence. This is debate after all, so this honorable act would be appreciated.
Secondly, surely you can do better than scare tactics, no? Let's leave that sort of reasoning to terrorists please. Here, we are to have reasoned debate. If that is not why you are here, then this is not the place for you.

Why did you act like a terrorist in place of answering the debate questions that were asked of you though? Is it a defense mechanism in place to help you to maintain a preconceived religious belief? I would believe you if you say this is the reason because you are obviously in fear of what a god might do to you after you die as you have demonstrated.

Lastly. Fear is internal. Therefore you cannot place your fear into me like you tried. I acknowledge your fear, can you acknowledge why I fear not the fear that is in you though?

[BruceLeiter]

[Replying to Clownboat in post #126]

@Clownboat, I don't understand your many objections to the God of the Bible. Does he have to fit your logic? After all, he is God, and we're not God. He said,

Isa 55:6  “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 
Isa 55:7  let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 
Isa 55:8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 
Isa 55:9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

Thus, God's logic and other thoughts are on a spiritual plane that is much higher than our thoughts can attain. Further, as God, he doesn't have to explain to us his reasons for his actions. What right do we have to demand such explanations?

In Isaiah 55, God compares his grace to a street vendor of water, milk, and wine. That seller gives his goods away free to anyone who asks for it:

Isa 55:1  “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 
Isa 55:2  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 
Isa 55:3  Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 

Now, is God's grace logical? No, not to human logic. Free gifts with no strings attached don't happen often if at all. But God offers salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection to us freely apart from our earning or deserving it. That's the amazing truth of Scripture. God accepts very imperfect people to be his adopted children and brothers and sisters to Jesus!

[Clownboat]

@Clownboat, I don't understand your many objections to the God of the Bible. Does he have to fit your logic?

I acknowledge your lack of understanding. Is that why you refuse to answer the debate questions posed to you?

After all, he is God, and we're not God.

In reality, none of the available god concepts have been shown to be real. Do you acknowledge this?

<snipped some Bible verses>

Thus, God's logic and other thoughts are on a spiritual plane that is much higher than our thoughts can attain.

Please inform me about this spiritual plane and how we gain knowledge about it. How is it that we detect it?

Further, as God, he doesn't have to explain to us his reasons for his actions. What right do we have to demand such explanations?

The Bible is filled with people who questioned this god concept, including figures like Job, Abraham, David, and even Jesus. Have you read the Bible?

Now, is God's grace logical? No, not to human logic.

There is only logic, sorry.
log·ic
/ˈläjik/
noun
1.
reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity.

You don't get to just pretend differences (god logic and human logic) where none exist to make absurdities go away.

Free gifts with no strings attached don't happen often if at all.

My children have in fact received many gifts with no strings attached.

But God offers salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection to us freely apart from our earning or deserving it.

I acknowledge that you are making this claim and likely even believe it. I'm not impressed because I believe we should not be sacrificing humans to the gods.

That's the amazing truth of Scripture.

What is? The empty claims you just made? How are unevidenced claims that you make evidence for the truth of Scripture?

God accepts very imperfect people to be his adopted children and brothers and sisters to Jesus!

Will this god concept accept the imperfect Muslim or the Hindu? How about the imperfect atheist? In reality, this god concept seems to only accepts those that are ok with human sacrifice. What is it about sacrificing a human to a god concept that gets you excited? I personally don't find human sacrifices to the gods to be good for society. Is there a reason I should support such behavior? Outside of you, some random internet poster threatening my eternals soul of course.