Deuteronomy 2 - Nations and Their Relations

The first thing that stands out in this section of the moving along of the Israelites into Caanan is how God commands them to treat the nations that may not like them or are so weak that they could be easily overtaken. They are commanded to buy food from them rather than take it and treat the nations they are passing through with respect rather than domination and theft. The same should always apply for the nations when interacting with each other today.

However, what stands out among the treatment of other nations with respect, is when God's judgement is passed onto another nation in the case of the Amorites which is recalled here in the conquest of Sihon. Many times this verse and its other telling in Numbers are brought up to accuse the Bible of being violent and imperialistic. That makes this placement of the recollection very intentional right after showing how these nations should treat each other when there are guests passing through. The decimation of the Amorites was specifically God's judgement on a nation and was directly commanded outright at the time. This idea is absurdly sensitive for that reason, who are we to claim today that God is telling us to entirely decimate another people for judgement purposes especially when almost ever war is fought over conquest reasons and is always claimed to be self-defense?