Deuteronomy 20:10-18

New International Reader's Version

¹⁰ Suppose you march up to attack a city. Before you attack it, offer to make peace with its people. ¹¹ Suppose they accept your offer and open their gates. Then force all the people in the city to be your slaves. They will have to work for you. ¹² But suppose they refuse your offer of peace and prepare for battle. Then surround that city. Get ready to attack it. ¹³ The Lord your God will hand it over to you. When he does, kill all the men with your swords. ¹⁴ But you can take the women and children for yourselves. You can also take the livestock and everything else in the city. What you have captured from your enemies you can use for yourselves. The Lord your God has given it to you. ¹⁵ That’s how you must treat all the cities far away from you. Those cities don’t belong to the nations that are nearby.

¹⁶ But what about the cities the Lord your God is giving you as your own? Kill everything that breathes in those cities. ¹⁷ Completely destroy them. Wipe out the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. That’s what the Lord your God commanded you to do. ¹⁸ If you don’t destroy them, they’ll teach you to do all the things the Lord hates. He hates the way they worship their gods. If you do those things, you will sin against the Lord your God.