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. ^(A)Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them,

⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^(A)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that ^[a]he does not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart!’

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 ^[a]is the tree of the field a human, that it should ^[b]be besieged by you?