Well I don\'t know of any specific Orthodox commentary of Deuteronomy (although there could be one in the new Orthodox Study Bible, but I haven\'t gotten that ... yet). I know there are plenty of protestant ones out there, but I\'m not familiar with them.
However there are two things I might comment on. First its important to remember that Leviticus is where the Hebrews gain their legalistic type of laws as handed down from God to Moses. Similarly as the Hebrews were finishing their wanderings in the desert Moses was now handing down a more spiritual law, one more to guide their hearts or attitudes. (With obvious exceptions such as the ending where Moses reports about his own death).
So Deuteronomy as we read it today should be a little less historical in spirit than we tend to read it. Of course there are other points of view on this point.
The second thing I\'d like to point out is that the original Hebrew translation was lost to history as it was rewritten into Greek. Later it was translated back to Hebrew as faithfully as possible. However as history has translated the word we have translated into, \\"utterly destroyed\\" is somewhat more ambiguous.
The word used now in the Hebrew is \\"Charam\\" and should you wish to look it up more its strong\'s number is 2763. It is used 5 times in Deuternomy (De 2:34 De 3:6 De 7:2 De 13:15 De 20:17) and each time translated as \\"utterly destroyed.\\"
But this does leave one question open as to what Moses meant to tell us. Because Charam can also have other meanings. 1 to prohibit (for common use), ban. 2. to consecrate, devote, dedicate for destruction.
Historically when the Hebrews went through the land they did not actually destroy everything. Working off the top of my head, I believe many of the animals were dedicated to God or used as compensation but I could be wrong on that point. Rahab helped the Hebrews and her family was spared. The precious metals were not destroyed (how does one destroy gold?), instead they were dedicated to God, and put in a secure place for Him.
Please refer to Joshua 6:17-18 for examples of this, sparing of Rahab and her family, the separation precious metals. This clearly shows that even though as we may read everything should have been destroyed, historically that did not happen. So it may be safe to consider that its a metaphor and we are indeed missing something deeper here cultural or translation wise. (excuse my absence of a degree or ordination here).
