Joshua 10:30
And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.
The verse records one battle in Israel's conquest of Canaan under Joshua, where the Lord delivered the city and its king into Israel's hand and none of its inhabitants were spared because their corrupting influence could not rightly be left to spread. Joshua struck the city and its king and all the people in it until none were left alive, never counting the day won while a single enemy breathed. The souls destroyed there mean the people themselves, the whole mortal inhabitants of the captured city, for person is the primary meaning of the word soul. They were smitten and killed with the edge of the sword and let none remain alive, showing that human souls can die and be killed by men, since soul means the whole being and living person and not a separate undying part able to live apart from the body.
Conquest Under Joshua
The book belongs largely to Israel's leader Joshua, whose name means saviour even as Jesus does in Greek, one of the two of his generation who wholly followed the Lord through the forty years of temptation and wilderness, entering his greatest work at about eighty years of age. His work was leading Israel through the Jordan, dividing the land, and setting them in the way to conquer all foes and find the promised rest, done with the Captain of Jehovah's hosts with him, where the invisible army of God gave success. Success came as at Jericho, the first-fruit of that evil land, in contrast to defeat as at Ai when Israel failed to trust. Faithfulness would have soon possessed the land, while backsliding after Jericho brought repeated captivity and years of adversity instead of prosperity.
The verse belongs to the account of Israel's battles and conquest of several small kingdoms in Canaan, where the whole land had to be taken in battle and no city made peace except Gibeon. The people of those kingdoms could not rightly be spared, because they would have continued to spread the same corrupting influence. The verse shows Joshua's thoroughness: he never counted the day won while a single enemy breathed but struck the city and its king and all the people in it until none were left alive, fighting till they were consumed.
That same spirit kept him on the firing line in the camp, marching all night to save Gibeon and praying for a day of double length rather than quit before the Amorites were destroyed, and God answered that prayer because of the spirit that refused to quit until the work was done. That thoroughness is the standard for clearing school debts, to keep fighting for freedom from debt until not one debt remains.
Souls Are Mortal People
In Joshua 10:30 and in verses 28 through 39 the souls are the people, the living persons, the whole men who were in the city and in the other captured cities. To destroy all the souls is to destroy the persons who were there, to destroy the inhabitants, the whole mortal people. Person is the primary meaning of the word soul, and the souls destroyed there were persons, not disembodied beings and not immortal beings. Joshua struck them down with the sword and none remained alive there, for the verse says they were all destroyed.
Soul means the whole being, the whole creature, the entire man and living person. It is not a separate part distinct from the body, not an immortal part living within man or able to live apart from man, but the person himself. This is the same use as man becoming a living soul, and the original term for living soul is also applied to the lowest kinds of creatures possessing animal life. Its repeated use of soul for those in the cities means persons, and their being slain means all the people were killed.
Joshua's army destroyed all who were there, killed the people of the captured city, and let none remain alive, showing that human souls can die. A soul can be cut off and die rather than being immortal. In the original language the phrase is dead soul, proving a soul is not a separate undying man within a man but a being who can die.
All the souls in the city were destroyed, smitten, killed and left none remaining with the edge of the sword, showing souls are killed by men. The soul there is the Hebrew neh-phesh or nephesh, which applies to the whole man and to the body and to the life and can refer to mortal life or a living person, not necessarily an immortal conscious entity separate from the body. The mere use of the word proves nothing about an immortal part, since immortality is nowhere affirmed of nephesh, and the soul is not something man is unable to kill and is not immortal.