Deuteronomy 20:19-20

New American Standard Bible 1995

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city 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, and you shall not cut them down. ^[a]For is the tree of the field a man, that it should ^[b]be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees which you know ^[c]are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.