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19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down, for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down. You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, 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