the conquest narratives utilize other verbs besides kharam that are not necessarily words for taking life.14 This indicates that kherem was not the goal of every engagement. The picture that emerges when all the descriptions are woven together was that, when Israelite soldiers encountered a member of the giant clans or others known to be descended from those clans, they were under kherem. Others might be killed in warfare, but their lives were not required by the supernatural-theological orientation that is telegraphed in Num 13:26–33, Deut 2–3, and Josh 11:21–23.
