John Calvin observes that while the command to besiege a city seems harsh, it functioned as a divine restraint in the context of ancient warfare. In an era of total, indiscriminate slaughter, God's law, while not the 'perfection of equity,' set moral boundaries by requiring the sparing of women and children in non-Canaanite cities. It was a concession to human 'hardness of heart' that still limited excessive cruelty.