Deuteronomy 20
The New Consensus Bible is an AI-generated contemporary rendering, built from seven public-domain translations and the 20-tradition consensus. See all the work behind this chapter.
1When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots, a people more numerous than you, you must not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2And it will be, as you draw near to the battle, the priest will approach and speak to the people, 3and he will say to them, "Hear, O Israel, you are drawing near today to battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint, do not fear, do not panic, and do not be terrified before them; 4for the LORD your God is the one going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you." 5And the officers will speak to the people, saying, "What man is there 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. 6And what man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. 7And what man is there who has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her." 8And the officers will speak further to the people, and they will say, "What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brothers melt like his heart." 9And it will be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they will appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people. 10When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall proclaim peace to it. 11And it will be, if it gives you an answer of peace, and opens to you, then all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you, and will serve you. 12But if it will not make peace with you, but makes war with you, then you shall besiege it; 13and when the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male in it with the mouth of the sword. 14Only the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its plunder, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the plunder of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. 15Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16Only of the cities of these peoples, which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive any breathing thing. 17Instead, you shall utterly devote them to destruction: 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 according to all their abominations, which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God. 19When you besiege a city for many days, making war against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. For you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you? 20Only trees that you know are not trees for food, you may destroy and cut down; and you shall build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
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