Laws of Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^(A)horses and 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 near and speak to the people. ³ He shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. ^(C)Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, ⁴ for the Lord your God ^(D)is the one who goes 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 and has not ^(E)dedicated it? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶ Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not ^[a]begun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[b]would begin to use its fruit. ^7 (F)And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not ^[c]married her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[d]would 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 depart and return to his house, so that ^[e]he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’ ⁹ 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 ^[f]offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ If it ^[g]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 shall 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 ^[h]men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ Only the women and the children and ^(J)the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall ^[i]use the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations ^[j]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 alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ But you shall ^[k]utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they may not teach you to do ^(L)according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would ^(M)sin against the Lord your God.

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. ^[l]For is the tree of the field a man, that it should ^[m]be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees which you know ^[n]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.