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14 but the women and children and livestock and anything else in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder for yourselves, and you may enjoy this spoil of your enemies, which the Lord, your God, has given you.

15 [a]That is how you shall deal with any city at a considerable distance from you, which does not belong to these nations here. 16 (A)But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage, you shall not leave a single soul alive.

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Footnotes

  1. 20:15 Deuteronomy makes a distinction between treatment of nations far away and those close at hand whose abhorrent religious practices might, or did, influence Israel’s worship. This harsh policy was to make sure the nations nearby did not pass their practices on to Israel (cf. chap. 7).

14 As for the women, the children, the livestock(A) and everything else in the city,(B) you may take these as plunder(C) for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance(D) from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.(E)

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