Deuteronomy 20:1–21:14

Laws of Warfare

1 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ahorses and chariots and people more numerous than you, bdo not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.

2 “When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the people.

3 “He shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. aDo not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them,

4 for the Lord your God ais the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

5 “The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house and has not adedicated it? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it.

6 ‘Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not 1begun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man 1would begin to use its fruit.

7 ‘aAnd who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not 1married her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man 2would marry her.’

8 “Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘aWho is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that 1he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’

9 “When the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall 1offer it terms of peace.

11 “If it 1agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your aforced labor and shall serve you.

12 “However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

13 “When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ayou shall strike all the 1men in it with the edge of the sword.

14 “Only the women and the children and athe animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall 1use the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you.

15 “Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations 1nearby.

16 “aOnly in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.

17 “But you shall 1utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you,

18 so that they may not teach you to do aaccording to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would bsin against the Lord your God.

19 “When you besiege a city a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. 1For is the tree of the field a man, that it should 2be besieged by you?

20 “Only the trees which you know 1are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.

Chapter 21

Expiation of a Crime

1 “If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God gives you to 1possess, and it is not known who has struck him,

2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one.

3 “It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;

4 and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

5 “Then athe priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and every 1assault 2shall be settled by them.

6 “All the elders of that city 1which is nearest to the slain man shall awash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

7 and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

8 ‘1Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of ainnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be 2forgiven them.

9 “aSo you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Domestic Relations

10 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and athe Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive,

11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself,

12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ashave her head and 1trim her nails.

13 “She shall also 1remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and amourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

14 “It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go 1wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not 2mistreat her, because you have ahumbled her.