Deuteronomy 20

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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Going out to battle

¹When you march out to battle against your enemies and face horses and chariots and a force bigger than your own, do not fear them. The LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. ²As you approach the battle, the priest is to step forward and speak to the troops. ³He shall say to them, ‘Hear, Israel: today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not lose heart. Do not be afraid, do not panic, and do not shrink back in terror before them, ⁴for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will fight for you against your enemies and give you victory.’ ⁵Then the officials are to say to the troops, ‘Has anyone built a new house and not yet dedicated it? He should go back home, or he may die in battle and someone else dedicate it. ⁶Has anyone planted a vineyard and not yet begun to enjoy its fruit? He should go back home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it. ⁷Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not yet married her? He should go back home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.’ ⁸The officials are to go on to say to the troops, ‘Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? He should go back home, so that he does not make his fellow soldiers lose heart as he has.’ ⁹When the officials have finished speaking to the troops, they are to appoint commanders of the divisions to lead them.

Attacking a city

¹⁰When you march up to a city to attack it, first offer it terms of peace. ¹¹If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, then all the people in it are to become forced laborers for you and serve you. ¹²But if it refuses to make peace with you and fights against you, lay siege to it. ¹³When the LORD your God hands it over to you, put all its men to the sword. ¹⁴But the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you may carry off as plunder for yourselves. You may use the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. ¹⁵This is how you are to deal with all the cities that are very far from you, the ones that do not belong to the nations here. ¹⁶But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷You must devote them completely to destruction, the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, just as the LORD your God commanded you, ¹⁸so that they will not teach you to copy all the detestable practices they have carried out for their gods, and so lead you to sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁹When you besiege a city for a long time, fighting against it to take it, do not destroy its trees by taking an ax to them. You may eat their fruit; do not cut them down. Is a tree in the field a person, that you should besiege it as well? ²⁰Only the trees that you know do not give food may you destroy and cut down, to build siege works against the city that is at war with you, until it falls.