Deuteronomy 20
20
Laws for Going to War
Moses said to Israel:
1If you have to go to war, you may find yourselves facing an enemy army that is bigger than yours and that has horses and chariots. But don't be afraid! The Lord your God rescued you from Egypt, and he will help you fight. 2Before you march into battle, a priest will go to the front of the army 3and say, “Soldiers of Israel, listen to me! Today when you go into battle, don't be afraid of the enemy, and when you see them, don't panic. 4The Lord your God will fight alongside you and help you win the battle.”
5Then the tribal officials will say to the troops:
If any of you have built a new house, but haven't yet moved in, you may go home. It isn't right for you to die in battle and for somebody else to live in your new house.
6If any of you have planted a vineyard but haven't had your first grape harvest, you may go home. It isn't right for you to die in battle and for somebody else to enjoy your grapes.
7If any of you are engaged to be married, you may go back home and get married. It isn't right for you to die in battle and for somebody else to marry the woman you are engaged to.
8Finally, if any of you are afraid, you may go home. We don't want you to discourage the other soldiers.
9When the officials are finished giving these orders, they will appoint officers to be in command of the army.
10-15Before you attack a town that is far from your land, offer peace to the people who live there. If they surrender and open their town gates, they will become your slaves. But if they reject your offer of peace and try to fight, surround their town and attack. Then, after the Lord helps you capture it, kill all the men. Take the women and children as slaves and keep the livestock and everything else of value.
16Whenever you capture towns in the land the Lord your God is giving you, be sure to kill all the people and animals. 17He has commanded you to completely wipe out the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 18If you allow them to live, they will persuade you to worship their disgusting gods, and you will be unfaithful to the Lord.
19When you are attacking a town, don't chop down its fruit trees, not even if you have had the town surrounded for a long time. Fruit trees aren't your enemies, and they produce food that you can eat, so don't cut them down. 20You may need wood to make ladders and towers to help you get over the walls and capture the town. But use only trees that you know are not fruit trees.
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Deuteronomy 20: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Deḇarim (Deuteronomy) 20
20
1“When you go out to battle against your enemies, and shall see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them, for יהוה your Elohim, who brought you up from the land of Mitsrayim, is with you.
2“And it shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall come and speak to the people,
3and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Yisra’ĕl: You are drawing near today to battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not fear, or tremble, or be afraid before them,
4for יהוה your Elohim is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’
5“And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
6And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not begun to use it? Let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man should begin to use it.
7And who is the man who is engaged to a woman and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’
8“And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Who is the man who is afraid and tender of heart? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brothers faint like his heart.’
9“And it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint commanders of the divisions to lead the people.
10“When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then you shall make a call for peace to it.
11“And it shall be that if it accepts your call for peace, and shall open to you, then all the people found in it are to be your compulsory labour, and serve you.
12“But if it does not make peace with you, and shall fight against you, then you shall besiege it,
13and יהוה your Elohim shall give it into your hands, and you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.
14“Only the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you take as plunder for yourself. And you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which יהוה your Elohim gives you.
15“Do so to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16Only, of the cities of these peoples which יהוה your Elohim gives you as an inheritance, you do not keep alive any that breathe,”
17but you shall certainly put them under the ban: the Ḥittite and the Amorite and the Kena‛anite and the Perizzite and the Ḥiwwite and the Yeḇusite, as יהוה your Elohim has commanded you,
18lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their mighty ones, and you sin against יהוה your Elohim.
19“When you besiege a city for a long time by fighting against it to take it, you do not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. If you do eat of them, do not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man to be besieged by you?
20“Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you do destroy and cut down, to build siege-works against the city that is fighting against you, until it falls.
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