Deuteronomy 20:10-18
New English Translation
10 When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. 11 If it accepts your terms[a] and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves.[b] 12 If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. 13 The Lord your God will deliver it over to you,[c] and you must kill every single male by the sword. 14 However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city—all its plunder—you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you. 15 This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.
Laws Concerning War with Canaanite Nations
16 As for the cities of these peoples that[d] the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing[e] to survive. 17 Instead you must utterly annihilate them[f]—the Hittites,[g] Amorites,[h] Canaanites,[i] Perizzites,[j] Hivites,[k] and Jebusites[l]—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship[m] their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God.
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- Deuteronomy 20:11 tn Heb “if it answers you peace.”
- Deuteronomy 20:11 tn Heb “become as a vassal and will serve you.” The Hebrew term translated slaves (מַס, mas) refers either to Israelites who were pressed into civil service, especially under Solomon (1 Kgs 5:13; 9:15, 21; 12:18), or (as here) to foreigners forced as prisoners of war to become slaves to Israel. The Gibeonites exemplify this type of servitude (Josh 9:3-27; cf. Josh 16:10; 17:13; Judg 1:28, 30-35; Isa 31:8; Lam 1:1).
- Deuteronomy 20:13 tn Heb “to your hands.”
- Deuteronomy 20:16 tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is “cities.”
- Deuteronomy 20:16 tn Heb “any breath.”
- Deuteronomy 20:17 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “utterly.” Cf. CEV “completely wipe out.”sn The Hebrew verb refers to placing persons or things so evil and/or impure as to be irredeemable under God’s judgment, usually to the extent of their complete destruction. See also the note on the phrase “the divine judgment” in Deut 2:34.
- Deuteronomy 20:17 sn Hittite. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).
- Deuteronomy 20:17 sn Amorite. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.
- Deuteronomy 20:17 sn Canaanite. These were the indigenous peoples of the land of Palestine, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 20:17 sn Perizzite. This probably refers to a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).
- Deuteronomy 20:17 sn Hivite. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on “Horites” in Deut 2:12).
- Deuteronomy 20:17 tc The LXX adds “Girgashites” here at the end of the list in order to list the full (and usual) complement of seven (see note on “seven” in Deut 7:1).sn Jebusite. These people inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).
- Deuteronomy 20:18 tn Heb “to do according to all their abominations which they do for their gods.”
Deuteronomy 20:10-18
International Standard Version
Rules of Peace
10 “When you approach a city to wage war against it, extend terms of peace. 11 If it agrees to peace and welcomes you, then all the people found in it will serve you as forced laborers. 12 But if they refuse to make peace with you and instead choose war, then attack it. 13 The Lord your God will deliver it into your control, and you must execute every male. 14 The women, children, all the livestock in the city, and all of the spoil and plunder will belong to you. Appropriate the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God will give you. 15 Do this to all the cities that are distant from you—that is, to those cities that are not in neighboring nations.”
Destruction of the Canaanites
16 “You are not to leave even one person alive in the cities of these nations that the Lord your God is about to give you as an inheritance. 17 You must completely destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, just as the Lord your God commanded you, 18 so they won’t teach you to do all the detestable things that they do for their gods. If you do what they teach you, you will sin against the Lord your God.”
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