Deuteronomy 20

Chapter 20

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,

⁴for 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 would 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,

¹⁸so 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.