10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall [a]offer it terms of peace. 11 And if it [b]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your (A)forced labor and serve you. 12 However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, (B)you shall strike all the [c]men in it with the edge of the sword. 14 However, the women, the children, (C)the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall [d]use the spoils of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. 15 This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations [e]nearby. 16 (D)Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive. 17 Instead, you shall [f]utterly destroy 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 so that they will not teach you to do [g](E)all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, [h]by which you would (F)sin against the Lord your God.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 20:10 Lit call to it for peace
  2. Deuteronomy 20:11 Lit answers peace to you
  3. Deuteronomy 20:13 Lit males
  4. Deuteronomy 20:14 Lit eat
  5. Deuteronomy 20:15 Lit here
  6. Deuteronomy 20:17 Or put them under the ban
  7. Deuteronomy 20:18 Lit according to all the detestable
  8. Deuteronomy 20:18 Lit and you would

10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, make an offer of peace. 11 If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you.(A) 12 However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it. 13 When the Lord your God hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword.(B) 14 But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations. 16 However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 17 You must completely destroy them—the Hethite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they won’t teach you to do all the detestable acts they do for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.(C)

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