Here are some possible methods of arriving at a body count:
- Everyone mentioned except Enoch and Elijah, as per Bob Jones's note
- Only those mentioned of meeting an untimely end
- Those mentioned as meeting an untimely end, plus reasonable assumptions about casualties on all sides in battles, famines or other events mentioned
Since the OT is not history in the modern sense, the count would only be a rough estimate and the margin of error would be inestimable. From a scholarly viewpoint, the number would not be useful, as there is no other number with which to compare it. It's not like asking "how many people were killed in WWII", an historical event for which we have some reliable records.
We would then have to ask what the purpose of arriving at this number is. Here are some possibilities:
- Proof that the OT outlook on life is essentially violent and retributive
- Proof that despite the violent surroundings, the OT produced prophecy of high moral vision
- Proof that the OT is inferior (or superior) to some other body of scripture or literature
- Elucidate the similarities or differences with other collections of literature, such as Greek or Hindu epic literature, and arrive at some conclusion
- Support speculation regarding the spiritual or moral meaning of the number or the fate of the people involved
Only the fourth purpose could be called hermeneutic.
In any event, the wars and plagues mentioned on the OT were in no way unusual for the ancient world. There is a good summary of ancient warfare on Wikipedia. It looks like the major players in our area of interest were the Egyptians, Assyrians and later the Persian and Greeks. The People of the Book were minor actors on this stage, along with the Edomites, Amelikites and Philistines.
It was indeed a nasty period of human history, but was to get much worse with technological improvements and population growth after the end of the OT. The Roman conquests, Islamic conquests, crusades, and well, you know the Vikings weren't known for their merciful acts.
Yet out of this global mayhem there arose a culture of prophecy that held that men should hammer swords into plows, spears into pruning hooks, stop conspiring to war, look out for widows, orphans and the displaced, forgive bad debts, and see themselves as stewards of the land rather than its owners. The record of that culture is found on the OT.