Chapter 20
1
When you go out to warfare against your enemies and see horse and chariot, a people more numerous than you, you shall not fear them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
2
And it will be, when you are approaching the battle, and the priest will draw near and speak to the people.
3
And he shall say to them, "Hear, Israel, you are drawing near today to warfare against your enemies. Let not your hearts faint. Do not fear, do not hasten, and do not be terrified because of them."
4
for the LORD your God is the one going with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
5
And the officers shall 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 war and another man dedicate it."
6
And what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man dedicate it.
7
And what man is there who has betrothed a woman and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man take her.
8
And the officers continued to speak to the people, saying, "What man is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that he does not melt his brother's heart like his own heart."
9
And it will be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they will appoint captains of heavenly hosts at the head of the people.
10
When you approach a city to fight against it, then you shall call to it for peace.
11
And it will be, if peace answers you and she opens to you, then it will be that all the people who are found in her will be to you for tribute and they will serve you.
12
And if she does not make peace with you but makes war with you, then you shall besiege her.
13
And the LORD your God will give them into your hand, and you shall strike every male to the mouth of the sword.
14
Only the women and the dependents and the livestock and everything that is in the city, all its booty you shall plunder for yourself and enjoy the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given to you.
15
In this way you shall treat all the cities that are very distant from you, which are not of the cities of these nations here.
16
Only in the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God is giving to you as an inheritance you shall not let every breath live.
17
for the ban you shall ban them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you.
18
in order that they not teach you to do according to all their abominations which they did to their gods, so that you sin against the LORD your God.
19
When you besiege a city many days to fight against it to seize it, do not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them, for from them you will eat, and you must not cut them down—for the adam is a tree of the field to come before you in the siege.
20
Only a tree which you know that it is not a food tree—you shall destroy it and cut it down and build a siegework against the city which is making warfare with you until its descending.