1When you go to war against your enemies, you might see that they have horses and chariots. They might even have an army stronger than yours. But don’t be afraid of them. The LORD your God will be with you. After all, he brought you up out of Egypt.2Just before you go into battle, the priest will come forward. He’ll speak to the army.3He’ll say, ‘Men of Israel, listen to me. Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Don’t be scared. Don’t be afraid. Don’t panic or be terrified by them.4The LORD your God is going with you. He’ll fight for you. He’ll help you win the battle over your enemies.’5The officers will speak to the army. They will say, ‘Has anyone built a new house and not started to live in it? Let him go home. If he doesn’t, he might die in battle. Then someone else will live in his house.6Has anyone planted a vineyard and not started to enjoy it? Let him go home. If he doesn’t, he might die in battle. Then someone else will enjoy his vineyard.7Has anyone promised to be married to a woman but hasn’t done it yet? Let him go home. If he doesn’t, he might die in battle. Then someone else will marry her.’8The officers will continue, ‘Is anyone afraid or scared? Let him go home. Then the other soldiers won’t lose hope too.’9The officers will finish speaking to the army. When they do, they’ll appoint commanders over it.10Suppose you march up to attack a city. Before you attack it, offer to make peace with its people.11Suppose they accept your offer and open their gates. Then force all the people in the city to be your slaves. They will have to work for you.12But suppose they refuse your offer of peace and prepare for battle. Then surround that city. Get ready to attack it.13The LORD your God will hand it over to you. When he does, kill all the men with your swords.14But you can take the women and children for yourselves. You can also take the livestock and everything else in the city. What you have captured from your enemies you can use for yourselves. The LORD your God has given it to you.15That’s how you must treat all the cities far away from you. Those cities don’t belong to the nations that are nearby.16But what about the cities the LORD your God is giving you as your own? Kill everything that breathes in those cities.17Completely destroy them. Wipe out the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. That’s what the LORD your God commanded you to do.18If you don’t destroy them, they’ll teach you to do all the things the LORD hates. He hates the way they worship their gods. If you do those things, you will sin against the LORD your God.19Suppose you surround a city and get ready to attack it. And suppose you fight against it for a long time in order to capture it. Then don’t chop down its trees and destroy them. You can eat their fruit. So don’t cut them down. Are the trees people? So why should you attack them?20But you can cut down trees that you know aren’t fruit trees. You can build war machines out of their wood. You can use them until you capture the city you are fighting against.
Deuteronomy 20
English Standard Version
Laws Concerning Warfare
1“When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. (De 31:6; De 31:8; Jos 17:18; 2Ch 13:12; 2Ch 32:8; Ps 20:7; Isa 31:1)2And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people (Nu 10:8; Nu 31:6)3and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them,4for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ (De 1:30; De 3:22; Jos 23:10)5Then 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 back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.6And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. (Le 19:23; De 28:30; 1Co 9:7)7And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ (De 24:5; De 28:30)8And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ (Jud 7:3)9And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.10“When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. (De 2:26; Jud 21:13; 2Sa 20:18; 2Sa 20:20)11And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.12But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.13And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, (Nu 31:7)14but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. (Nu 31:9; Jos 8:2; Jos 22:8)15Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here.16But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, (Nu 33:52; De 7:1; Jos 11:14)17but you shall devote them to complete destruction,[1] the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, (De 7:2)18that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God. (Ex 23:33; De 7:4; De 12:30; De 18:9)19“When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? (2Ki 3:19; 2Ki 3:25)20Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.