Deuteronomy 20
1When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more than you, be not afraid of them: for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
2And it shall be, when you are come near unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,
3And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, you approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be you terrified because of them;
4For the LORD your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
5And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.
6And what man is he that has planted a vineyard, and has not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it.
7And what man is there that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.
8And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart.
9And it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
10When you come near unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
11And it shall be, if it makes to you an answer of peace, and opens unto you, then it shall be, that all the people that are found therein shall be subject unto you, and they shall serve you.
12And if it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:
13And when the LORD your God has delivered it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword:
14But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shall you take unto yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you.
15Thus shall you do unto all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD your God does give you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes:
17But you shall utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD your God has commanded you:
18That they teach you not to do according to all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so that you should sin against the LORD your God.
19When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees thereof by wielding an ax against them: for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege:
20Only the trees which you know will not be trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.
Commentaries for Deuteronomy 20:0