Why Was God Cruel in the Old Testament?

Strong words. And we must admit – they didn’t come from nowhere.

The Bible does describe a flood that wiped out humanity. The plagues of Egypt and the death of the firstborn. The command to destroy the Canaanites. The law of “eye for eye” that God gave to Israel. Regulations concerning slavery.

Can any of this be defended? Or do Christians simply ignore these passages, hoping no one will ask?

In this article, we won’t pretend the problem doesn’t exist. We’ll face the accusations honestly – and see whether context changes the perspective.

The Specific Accusations

Before we respond, let’s honestly present the charges. Here are the passages critics most frequently cite:

The Destruction of the Canaanites:

In the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.

— Deuteronomy 20:16 (ESV)

The Death of the Firstborn:

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt.

— Exodus 12:29 (ESV)

The Flood:

He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground.

— Genesis 7:23 (ESV)

Eye for Eye:

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

— Exodus 21:24 (ESV)

These aren’t marginal passages. They’re events central to Israel’s history. We cannot ignore them.

Historical Context

The first mistake is reading the Old Testament through a 21st-century lens – as if Moses were writing a constitution for a modern democracy.

Let’s pause here for a moment. We often struggle to understand the mentality of people who lived just a few hundred years ago. We read diaries from the 19th century and are surprised by their views. We watch films from 50 years ago and are shocked by some of the dialogue.

And we’re talking about texts from 3,000 years ago.

This isn’t a generational gap. It’s a chasm. A completely different mentality, different moral standards, different concepts of justice, honor, life, and death. We wouldn’t find our footing in their world – and they wouldn’t in ours.

The ancient Near East was a brutal place. Not “somewhat harder” than today – fundamentally different. Wars meant total annihilation – men, women, children, animals. This was the standard, not the exception. Slavery was universal and unrestricted – no one questioned the institution itself. Revenge had no limits – for one murder, you could massacre an entire tribe, and this was considered justice.

In this context, Mosaic law was a revolutionary step forward, not backward.

”Eye for Eye” – Limitation, Not Encouragement

Today it sounds brutal. But we need to understand what “justice” looked like in the ancient world. The norm was unlimited vengeance. Someone put out your eye? You killed him and his entire family. Someone injured your brother? You massacred his whole tribe. And this was considered just – honor demanded revenge greater than the injury.

In this context, God’s law given to Israel was revolutionary. “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth” meant: only an eye for an eye. No more. Punishment had to be proportional to the offense – and only proportional. You couldn’t kill an entire family for one eye. You couldn’t burn down a village for one theft. This was a limitation on vengeance, not encouragement of it.

The Code of Hammurabi (18th century BC) – one of the oldest preserved legal codes – also introduced the principle of proportionality. It was revolutionary in its time: written law instead of arbitrary rulings by a ruler. But it contained class inequality: for putting out the eye of a free man – eye for eye; for putting out the eye of a slave – only a monetary payment.

Mosaic law, given by God to Israel, went further: it treated people more equally. And more importantly – it clearly set a boundary: revenge cannot exceed the harm suffered. Not one bit more.

Slavery in Israel

Yes, the Old Testament regulates slavery. To understand these laws, we need to see what slavery looked like in other ancient cultures:

In Babylonia and Assyria slaves were complete property – they could be beaten, mutilated, and killed without any legal consequences. A runaway slave was hunted down and severely punished – often by death or cutting off ears. A person who sheltered a runaway risked the death penalty.

In Egypt slaves worked in quarries and on construction sites until they died of exhaustion. They had no rights or days off. A slave’s life had no value – they were tools, not people.

In Greece and Rome (later) slaves could not testify in court without being tortured. The master had absolute power over the slave’s life and death. Killing one’s own slave was not a crime.

Against this background, Israelite law was exceptionally humane:

Time limitation: Hebrew slaves were freed after 6 years (Exodus 21:2) – in other cultures slavery was for life
No returning runaways: “You shall not return a runaway slave to his master” (Deuteronomy 23:15-16) – elsewhere, sheltering a runaway meant death
Protection from violence: If a master knocked out a slave’s eye or tooth – the slave went free (Exodus 21:26-27) – elsewhere, a master could kill his slave without consequences
Day of rest: The Sabbath applied to slaves too (Exodus 20:10) – in other cultures slaves worked without rest

By the standards of that time, this was the most progressive law concerning slavery in the entire ancient world.

Theological Context

But historical context isn’t enough. We also need to understand who the God of the Bible is.

God as Judge

Modern culture likes to see God as a “loving grandfather” – understanding, tolerant, accepting everything. But the Bible presents God as a righteous Judge.

A judge who never punishes is not just. If God is good, He must oppose evil. And opposing evil sometimes means punishment.

400 Years of Patience

Critics rarely mention God’s patience. In Genesis, God tells Abraham:

In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.

— Genesis 15:16 (ESV)

400 years. God gave the Canaanites four centuries to change. This wasn’t impulsive anger, but long-restrained judgment.

What were the “sins of the Amorites”? This isn’t a rhetorical question. We need to understand what we’re dealing with.

Child sacrifice to Moloch. Moloch (or Molek) was a deity to whom people sacrificed their own children. What did this look like? The idol’s statue was heated until red-hot, and a living infant was placed on its outstretched arms. The child died in agony while priests beat drums to drown out the screams. This is not exaggeration or propaganda – it’s confirmed by biblical sources, extra-biblical records from ancient historians, and archaeological findings (including mass graves of burned children discovered in Carthage, a Phoenician colony).

Parents did this voluntarily. They believed that sacrificing a child would ensure prosperity, good harvests, victory in war. The more precious the child – firstborn, healthy – the better the offering.

Ritual prostitution. Canaanite temples employed “sacred” prostitutes of both sexes. Sex with them was a religious act, meant to ensure the fertility of the land. Women and men were sexually exploited in the name of the gods.

Occultism and necromancy. The Book of Deuteronomy lists practices that God calls “abominations”: divination, sorcery, consulting the dead, predicting the future from animal entrails. This wasn’t innocent folklore – it was darkness that enslaved entire societies.

The Bible summarizes it briefly:

For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

— Deuteronomy 18:12 (ESV)

Let’s pause here for a moment. The same people who criticize God for judging the Canaanites often demand the harshest punishments in online comments for those who abuse animals. And rightly so – it’s outrageous. We see a video of someone kicking a dog, and we write: “should rot in prison,” “should feel it themselves,” “zero mercy.”

But we’re talking about a culture that burned their own children alive. Systematically. For centuries. As a religious and social norm.

If we discovered today a country where officially, legally, with the blessing of priests – parents burn infants alive – would the world tolerate it? Would we say “it’s their culture, we can’t judge”? Or would we demand intervention at any cost?

God intervened. After 400 years of warnings.

Does divine judgment for such practices really seem unjust?

What About the Flood?

The same applies to the Flood. The Bible doesn’t present it as the whim of a bored deity. It gives specific reasons:

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

— Genesis 6:5 (ESV)

“Only evil continually” – not sometimes, not in certain situations, but constantly. Imagine a society where every person, all the time, thinks only of evil. Violence, exploitation, cruelty as the norm. No justice, no mercy, no hope for improvement. Human relationships must have been a nightmare.

The text also mentions mysterious “sons of God” who took “daughters of man” as wives, and giants (Nephilim) – whatever this exactly means, it indicates a deep corruption of the created order. Humanity had strayed so far from God’s design that it required a “reset.”

Even then, God gave warning. Noah built the ark in plain sight of everyone. It was a final chance for repentance. No one took it.

What About the Egyptian Plagues?

The death of the Egyptian firstborn is one of the most disturbing passages in the Bible. How do we explain it?

Let’s start with the context that critics often overlook. Egypt enslaved the nation of Israel for 400 years. But that’s not all. Pharaoh issued an order:

Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile.

— Exodus 1:22 (ESV)

Egyptians systematically murdered Israelite infants. For generations. This was a genocidal regime.

When God sent Moses, He didn’t start with the death of the firstborn. He wanted to give Pharaoh a chance. Moses came to Pharaoh with a simple request: “Let my people go.” Not with an army, not with threats – with a request and a proposal. God was giving Pharaoh a chance to resolve the matter peacefully, without bloodshed.

Pharaoh refused. And not just once – ten times. God sent the plagues not out of revenge, but so that Pharaoh would come to his senses. Each one was a signal: “You can still end this. You can still let my people go”:

Water turned to blood – The Nile, Egypt’s source of life and a deity in itself, became foul-smelling blood. Fish died, the water was undrinkable.
Frogs – Sacred animals of the goddess Heqet flooded homes, beds, bread ovens. They were everywhere, then died en masse, poisoning the air.
Gnats – The dust of the earth turned into swarms of biting insects. This exceeded the Egyptian magicians’ abilities – they admitted: “This is the finger of God.”
Flies – Swarms of flies descended on Egypt but avoided the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived. God began showing the difference.
Plague on livestock – Horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep of the Egyptians died. The Israelites’ livestock remained untouched.
Boils – Painful, festering sores covered the Egyptians and their animals. Even Pharaoh’s magicians couldn’t stand before Moses because of the boils.
Hail – The worst hail in Egypt’s history, mixed with fire. It destroyed crops and killed anyone who didn’t take shelter. God warned beforehand – whoever listened, survived.
Locusts – Whatever survived the hail, the locusts devoured. Swarms so dense they blocked the sun. Not a single blade of green remained.
Darkness – Three days of impenetrable darkness, so thick it could be “felt.” Egyptians couldn’t see each other, couldn’t move. Ra, the sun god, proved powerless.
Death of the firstborn – The final plague, after nine ignored warnings.

Nine times Pharaoh could have relented. Nine times he refused. The Bible says he “hardened his heart.” God didn’t force him – Pharaoh chose resistance, again and again.

The final plague was tragic, but not random. Egypt had been killing Israelite children for generations – now they experienced the same. This wasn’t a whim. This was justice on a national scale.

And even then, God provided a way out. The blood of the lamb on the doorposts protected from death – everyone who applied it. Including Egyptians. Salvation was available to all who trusted God.

Is the death of innocent children a tragedy? Absolutely. But the question is: who bears responsibility for it? Pharaoh had nine chances to prevent it. He chose the pride of his empire over the lives of his own people.

God Judges Israel Too

A key observation: God doesn’t have double standards. The same God who judged the Canaanites later judged Israel – for the same sins.

The Babylonian exile, the destruction of Jerusalem, the scattering of the nation – Israel experienced consequences exactly like the nations they replaced. God doesn’t play favorites.

A Question for the Skeptic

Before we conclude, it’s worth asking a question in the other direction.

When an atheist says the God of the Old Testament is “immoral” – where do they get the moral standard for such an evaluation?

If there is no God, if we are merely products of blind evolution – where does objective morality come from? Why would “don’t kill children” be anything more than a subjective preference?

C.S. Lewis, before becoming a Christian, was an atheist. He wrote:

Criticizing God assumes a standard that has no foundation without God.

What’s more – most people who criticize the God of the Old Testament do so using a morality shaped by… that same God. It was the teaching of Jesus Christ that caused the greatest moral revolution in human history. The dignity of every person, protection of the weak, love for enemies, equality of all before God – these values that we consider obvious today were not obvious in the ancient world. It was Christianity that spread them.

The irony is that atheists use Christian morality to criticize the Christian God.

This doesn’t mean difficult questions disappear. But the irony is worth noting.

Conclusion

Let’s review the facts:

The Canaanites – burned their own children alive, practiced ritual prostitution, engaged in practices so abhorrent that even other ancient nations condemned them. God waited 400 years for their repentance.
The Flood – humanity where “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” A society of violence, exploitation, and cruelty with no hope of improvement.
Egypt – 400 years of slavery and systematic murder of Israelite infants. Pharaoh was given nine chances before the final plague came.

These punishments were just.

And let’s be honest: the same people who today scream that the God of the Old Testament is a “monster” and “tyrant” – if these atrocities were happening before their eyes, they would be the first to punish these evildoers. And probably in far worse ways than God did.

We see a video of someone hurting a child, and we write: “death is too good for them.” But when God punishes a civilization that burned children alive for centuries – suddenly we’re outraged by His “cruelty”?

Now let’s think about this “cruel,” “selfish” God for a moment.

This same God – though He didn’t have to – became human. He entered our world. He lived among us. And then He allowed Himself to be arrested, flogged, spat upon. He carried the cross on His own shoulders, only to be nailed to it. He died over hours in agony, suffocating on a beam, with nails through His hands and feet – for people who rejected Him. For people who shouted “crucify Him.” For us.

Is that what a “selfish tyrant” does?

The God of the Old Testament is the same God who in the New Testament took upon Himself the punishment that we deserved. The same God who judges – is the God who saves. Not with words, not with declarations – but with His own blood.

God always gives time for repentance. 400 years for the Canaanites. Nine plagues for Pharaoh. Generations of prophets for Israel. A whole lifetime for each of us.

The problem isn’t God. The problem is us – and sometimes our blind hatred toward Him and His laws.

God is not cruel. He is not a tyrant. He is just and He loves us. He always gives time for repentance. He wants what’s good for us.

But if there’s no initiative on our part – He judges.

And He will judge every evildoer who doesn’t repent during their lifetime. After that, there are no second chances.