20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.
20:2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army.
20:3 He shall say: “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them.
20:4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
20:5 The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may dedicate it.
20:6 Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it.
20:7 Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.”
20:8 Then the officers shall add, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too.”
20:9 When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they shall appoint commanders over it.
20:10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace.
20:11 If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you.
20:12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city.
20:13 When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.
20:14 As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies.
20:15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.
20:16 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.
20:17 Completely destroy them–the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites–as the LORD your God has commanded you.
20:18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.
20:19 When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?
20:20 However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.
20:1 When you go forth into battle against your enemies, and you see horse and chariot, a people more numerous than you, you shall not fear them; for Jehovah your God is with you, He who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
20:2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people,
20:3 And he shall say to them, Hear, O Israel! You are drawing near to the battle against your enemies today. Do not let your heart fail; do not be afraid or alarmed or terrified of them.
20:4 For it is Jehovah your God who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
20:5 And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, Is there any man who 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.
20:6 Is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not partaken of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man partake of it.
20:7 Is there any man who has gotten engaged to a woman and has not taken her to himself? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her to himself.
20:8 And the officers shall speak further to the people and say, Is there any man who is afraid and whose heart fails? Let him go and return to his house, so that the heart of his brothers does not melt like his heart.
20:9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of the armies at the head of the people.
20:10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, you shall proclaim peace to it.
20:11 And if it responds with peace to you and opens its gates to you, all the people found within it shall become your forced labor; and they shall serve you.
20:12 But if it does not make peace with you, but rather engages in battle with you, you shall besiege it.
20:13 And when Jehovah your God delivers it into your hand, you shall slay every male in it with the edge of the sword.
20:14 But the women and the little ones and the beasts and all that is in the city, that is, all its spoil, you shall take as your plunder; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which Jehovah your God has given you.
20:15 Thus shall you do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not among the cities of these nations.
20:16 But of the cities of these peoples which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not allow anything that breathes to live;
20:17 But you must utterly destroy them: the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, just as Jehovah your God has commanded you,
20:18 So that they do not teach you to do according to all their abominations which they do for their gods and you sin against Jehovah your God.
20:19 When you besiege a city for many days, battling against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?
20:20 However, a tree that you know is not a tree for food, you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may build a siegework against the city, which engages you in battle, until it falls.