Laws of Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^(A)horses, chariots, and people more numerous than you, ^(B)do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people. ³ He shall say to them, ‘Hear, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. ^(C)Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them, ⁴ for the Lord your God ^(D)is the One who is going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ ⁵ The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house but has not ^(E)dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶ And who is the man that has planted a vineyard but has not ^[a]put it to use? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[b]would put it to use. ^7 (F)And who is the man that is ^[c]betrothed to a woman and has not ^[d]married her? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would ^[e]marry her.’ ⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^(G)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that ^[f]he does not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart!’ ⁹ And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰ “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall ^[g]offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ And if it ^[h]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^(H)forced labor and serve you. ¹² However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ^(I)you shall strike all the ^[i]men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ However, the women, the children, ^(J)the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall ^[j]use the spoils of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations ^[k]nearby. ^16 (K)Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive. ¹⁷ Instead, you shall ^[l]utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they will not teach you to do ^[m](L)all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, ^[n]by which you would ^(M)sin against the Lord your God.

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 ^[o]is the tree of the field a human, that it should ^[p]be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees that you know ^[q]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.