Deuteronomy 20
Legacy Standard Bible
Statutes About Warfare
20 “If you go out to battle against your enemies and see (A)horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, (B)do not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. 2 Now it will be, when you are drawing near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people. 3 And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are drawing near to the battle against your enemies today. Do not let your heart be faint. (C)Do not be afraid, nor be alarmed, nor be in dread before them, 4 for Yahweh your God (D)is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ 5 The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house and has not (E)dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6 Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not [a]begun to use its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man [b]begin to use its fruit. 7 (F)And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not [c]married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man [d]marry her.’ 8 Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘(G)Who is the man that is afraid and whose heart is faint? Let him go and return to his house, so that [e]he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’ 9 Now it will be that when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.
10 “If you come near a city to fight against it, you shall call for terms of peace. 11 Now it will be that if it [f]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your (H)forced labor and shall serve you. 12 However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And Yahweh your God shall give it into your hand, (I)and you shall strike all the males in it with the edge of the sword. 14 Only the women and the little ones and (J)the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall consume the spoil of your enemies which Yahweh your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations [g]nearby. 16 (K)Only in the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 But you shall devote them to destruction, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you, 18 so that they may not teach you to do (L)according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, so that you would (M)sin against Yahweh your God.
19 “If you besiege a city for many days, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. [h]For is the tree of the field a man, that it should [i]be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you shall destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 20:6 Lit treat(ed) it as common
- Deuteronomy 20:6 Lit treat(ed) it as common
- Deuteronomy 20:7 Lit taken
- Deuteronomy 20:7 Lit take
- Deuteronomy 20:8 As in Gr and other ancient versions
- Deuteronomy 20:11 Lit answers peace
- Deuteronomy 20:15 Lit here
- Deuteronomy 20:19 Read as interrogative with ancient versions
- Deuteronomy 20:19 Lit come before you in the siege
Deuteronomy 20
Common English Bible
Rules for warfare
20 When you march out to battle your enemies and you see horses, chariots, and a fighting force larger than yours, don’t be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, the one who brought you up from Egypt, is with you. 2 As you advance toward the war, the priest will come forward and will address the troops. 3 He will say to them: “Listen, Israel: Right now you are advancing to wage war against your enemies. Don’t be discouraged! Don’t be afraid! Don’t panic! Don’t shake in fear on account of them, 4 because the Lord your God is going with you to fight your enemies for you and to save you.”
5 The officials will also say to the troops: “Is there anyone here who has just built a new house but hasn’t yet dedicated it? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the war and someone else would dedicate the house. 6 Or is there anyone here who has planted a vineyard but hasn’t yet put it to good use? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the battle and someone else would use the vineyard. 7 Or is there anyone here who is engaged but not yet married? He may leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the battle and someone else would marry his fiancée.”
8 The officials will continue to address the troops, stating: “Is there anyone here who is afraid and discouraged? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, his comrades might lose courage just as he has.” 9 Once the officials have completed their speech to the troops, the army commanders will assume leadership of the forces.
10 When you approach a city to fight against it, you should first extend peaceful terms to it. 11 If the city responds with peaceful terms and surrenders to you, then all the people in the city will serve you as forced laborers. 12 However, if the city does not negotiate peacefully with you but makes war against you, you may attack it. 13 The Lord your God will hand it over to you; you must kill all the city’s males with the sword. 14 However, you can take for yourselves the women, the children, the animals, and all that is in the city—all its plunder. You can then enjoy your enemies’ plunder, which the Lord your God has given you.
15 That’s what you must do to all the cities that are located far away from you—specifically, those cities that don’t belong to these nations here. 16 But in the case of any of the cities of these peoples—the ones the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance—you must not spare any living thing. 17 Instead, you must place these under the ban:[a] Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord your God commanded you. 18 Then they can’t teach you to do all the detestable things they did for their gods, with the result that you end up sinning against the Lord your God.
19 Now if you have been attacking a city for some time, fighting against it and trying to conquer it, don’t destroy its trees by cutting them down with axes. You can eat from those trees; don’t cut them down! Do you think a tree of the field is some sort of warrior to be attacked by you in battle? 20 That said, if you know that a tree is not a food-producing tree, you are allowed to destroy it, cutting it down and using it in the siege against the city that is fighting against you until it falls.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 20:17 See note at Deut 2:34.
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