Deuteronomy 20

Principles Governing Warfare

20“When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see ^ahorses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be ^bafraid of them; for the Lord your God is ^cwith you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. ²So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. ³And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them; ⁴for the Lord your God is He who goes with you, ^dto fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

⁵“Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying: ‘What man is there who has built a new house and has not ^ededicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶Also what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it. ^7fAnd what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.’

⁸“The officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ^g‘What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, ¹lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.’ ⁹And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

¹⁰“When you go near a city to fight against it, ^hthen proclaim an offer of peace to it. ¹¹And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you. ¹²Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, ⁱyou shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴But the women, the little ones, ^jthe livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and ^kyou shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the Lord your God gives you. ¹⁵Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

¹⁶“But ^lof the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, ¹⁷but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸lest ^mthey teach you to do according to all their ²abominations which they have done for their gods, and you ⁿsin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹“When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man’s food. ²⁰Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.