10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, (A)offer terms of peace to it. 11 And 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. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, (B)you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 (C)but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you (D)shall take as plunder for yourselves. And (E)you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But (F)in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but (G)you shall devote them to complete destruction,[a] the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that (H)they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you (I)sin against the Lord your God.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 20:17 That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)

10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace.(A) 11 If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject(B) to forced labor(C) and shall work for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. 13 When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.(D) 14 As for the women, the children, the livestock(E) and everything else in the city,(F) you may take these as plunder(G) for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance(H) from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

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.(I) 17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods,(J) and you will sin(K) against the Lord your God.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 20:17 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.