CHAPTER 20
When
you go out
to war
against
your enemies
and see
horses,
chariots,
and an army
larger
than yours,
do not
be afraid
of them;
for
the LORD
your God,
who brought you
out of the land
of Egypt,
is with you.
saying
to them,
“Hear,
O Israel,
today
you
are going
into battle
with
your enemies.
Do not
be fainthearted
or
be afraid;
do not
be alarmed
or terrified
because of them.
For
the LORD
your God
is He who goes
with you
to fight
for you
against
your enemies,
to give you the victory.”
Furthermore, the officers
are to address
the army,
saying,
“Has any
man
built
a new
house
and not
dedicated it?
Let him return
home,
or
he may die
in battle
and another
man
dedicate it.
Has any
man
planted
a vineyard
and not
begun to enjoy its fruit?
Let him return
home,
or
he may die
in battle
and another
man
enjoy its fruit.
Has any
man
become pledged
to a woman
and not
married her?
Let him return
home,
or
he may die
in battle
and another
man
marry her.”
Then the officers
shall speak
further
to
the army,
saying,
“Is any
man
afraid
or fainthearted?
Let him return
home,
so that the hearts
of his brothers
will not
melt
like his own.”
If
they accept
your offer of peace
and open their gates,
all
the people
there
will become
forced laborers
to serve you.
When the LORD
your God
has delivered it
into your hands,
you must strike down
every
male
with the sword.
But
the women,
children,
livestock,
and whatever
else is
in the city—
all
its spoil—
you may take as plunder,
and you shall use
the spoil
of your enemies
that
the LORD
your God
gives you.
This is how
you are to treat
all
the cities
that are far away
from you
and do not
belong to the
nations nearby.
However,
in the cities
of the
nations
that
the LORD
your God
is giving
you
as an inheritance,
you must not leave alive
anything
that breathes.
You must completely destroy
them—
the Hittites
and the Amorites,
the Canaanites
and the Perizzites,
the Hivites
and the Jebusites—
as
the LORD
your God
has commanded you,
so that
they cannot
teach
you to do
all
the detestable things
they do
for their gods
and cause you to sin
against the LORD
your God.
When
you lay siege
to
a city
for an extended
time
while fighting
against it
to capture it,
you must not
destroy
its trees
by putting
an ax
to them,
because
you can eat their fruit.
You must not
cut them down.
Are the trees
of the field
human,
that you should besiege them?
But
you may destroy
the trees
that
you know
do not
produce fruit.
Use them
to build
siege works
against
the city
that
is waging
war
against you,
until
it falls.