Some Examples of God and his Follower's "Love" and "Compassion"

The following are just a small sample of the horrible things that God does or commands his followers to do:

Joshua 21:16 'They devoted the city (Jericho) to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.'

Numbers 14:18 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'

Deuteronomy 3:3-6 'So the LORD our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them—the whole region of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan. All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages. We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city—men, women and children.'

1 Samuel 15:2-3 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'

I think these passages really speak for themselves. How can a benevolent God be so unfair and command his followers to commit these heinous acts? It's also interesting that these acts are in contradiction to the commandment to not kill and Jesus's concept of turning the other cheek. I don't understand how a book that is supposed to be the rule book to life and, presumably the after-life, can have so many mind boggling contradictions and promote so much bloodlust and violence.