Deuteronomy 20

Do Not Fear When You Go to Battle

1“When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not fear them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. 2And when you draw near to battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people. 3He shall say to them, ‘Hear, Israel! You are drawing near today to battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart grow weak. Do not fear, panic, or tremble before them. 4For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

Who May Return Home

5“Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man who 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 planted a vineyard and has not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy it. 7And who is the man who has betrothed 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.’ 8The officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘Who is the man who is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that the heart of his brothers does not melt like his heart.’ 9And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

Offer Peace to Distant Cities

10“When you draw near to a city to fight against it, you shall call out peace to it. 11And if it answers you with peace and opens to you, then all the people found in it shall become forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12But if it does not make peace with you but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. 14But the women, little children, livestock, and everything in the city, all its spoil, you may take as plunder for yourself. You shall eat the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you. 15Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not from the cities of these nations.

The Cities of the Canaanite Nations

16“But from the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not let anything that breathes live. 17Rather, you shall surely devote them to destruction—the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—as the LORD your God commanded you, 18so that they do not teach you to do according to all their detestable practices that they have done for their gods and you sin against the LORD your God.

Do Not Destroy Fruit Trees in a Siege

19“When you besiege a city many days, fighting against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them, for you may eat from them. You shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a human being, that it should come before you in the siege? 20Only a tree that you know is not a tree for food you may destroy and cut down, and you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you until it falls.