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19 “When you are attacking a town and the war drags on, you must not cut down the trees with your axes. You may eat the fruit, but do not cut down the trees. Are the trees your enemies, that you should attack them? 20 You may only cut down trees that you know are not valuable for food. Use them to make the equipment you need to attack the enemy town until it falls.

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19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, 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, so you shall not cut them down. For [a]is the tree of the field a human, that it should [b]be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know [c]are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war against you until it falls.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 20:19 Read as interrogative with ancient versions; MT the tree of the field is man
  2. Deuteronomy 20:19 Lit come before you in the siege
  3. Deuteronomy 20:20 Lit that it is not a tree of food