Deuteronomy 20:19-20

English Standard Version

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, ^(A)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? ²⁰ Only 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.