Deuteronomy
Chapter 20
1 When you go to fight against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and a bigger army than yours, don’t be scared of them: because God who brought you out of Egypt is with you.
2 When you are close to the battle, the priest will come forward and talk to the people.
3 Listen, Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be weak-hearted, do not be afraid, do not shake with fear, and do not be scared of them.
4 God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies and to save you.
5 The leaders will talk to the people and ask, “Is there anyone who has built a new house but hasn’t dedicated it yet? He should go home, so he doesn’t die in the fight and someone else dedicates his house.”
6 Who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten any of its fruit yet? He should go home, so he doesn’t die in battle and someone else eats the fruit.
7 If a man is engaged to be married and has not yet married her, he should go back to his home so he won’t die in the battle and another man marry her.
8 The leaders will speak again to the people and ask, “Is there anyone who is scared and weak-hearted? He should go back to his home so he doesn’t make his fellow soldiers lose courage like he has.”
9 When the officers finish talking to the people, they will appoint leaders to guide the soldiers.
10 When you come close to a city to battle it, first offer peace to it.
11 If the city responds peacefully and welcomes you, then everyone in the city will pay you tribute and serve you.
12 If it does not agree to peace with you and wants to fight, then surround and attack it.
13 When God gives you victory, you must kill every man there with your sword.
14 But take the women, children, animals, and everything else in the city for yourself, including all the goods; and you can use what you take from your enemies, which God has given you.
15 Do this to all the distant cities not part of these nations.
16 But from the towns of these nations, which God gives you as a possession, you must not let anything that breathes live.
17 You must completely destroy them: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as God has commanded you.
18 Make sure they don’t teach you to follow their terrible ways that they practice for their gods; if you do, you will sin against God.
19 When you surround a city for a long time, fighting to capture it, do not ruin its trees by chopping them down with an axe. You can eat their fruit, but do not cut them down, because trees in the field are not your enemy to use in the siege.
20 Destroy only the trees you know are not for food; cut them down and use them to make defenses against the city at war with you, until it surrenders.