Deuteronomy 20

¹When you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horses and chariots and a people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

²When you draw near to the battle, the priest shall step forward and speak to the people.

³and he shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel! You are drawing near today to battle against your enemies. Do not let your hearts be faint; do not be afraid; do not be in a hurry; and do not tremble before them.

⁴for the LORD the God of you all is the one going with you, to fight on your behalf against the enemies of you all, to save you.

⁵And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, 'Who is the man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.'

⁶And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not yet dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

⁷And what man is there who has betrothed a wife but has not yet taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.

⁸Then the officials shall continue to speak to the people and say, 'Who is the man who is fearful and faint of heart? Let him go and return to his house, lest he melt the heart of his brothers like his own heart.'

⁹And it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of the armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰When you draw near to a city to fight against it, you shall call out to it for peace.

¹¹And it shall be, if it answers you with peace and opens to you, then all the people found in it shall become your forced laborers and shall serve you.

¹²But if it does not make peace with you and makes war against you, then you shall lay siege to it.

¹³And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike down all its males with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴Only the women, the children, the livestock, and everything that is in the city -- all its spoil -- you may plunder for yourself; and you shall consume the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.

¹⁵Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not among the cities of these nations here.

¹⁶Only from the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not let anything that breathes live.

¹⁷For you shall 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.

¹⁸so that they may not teach you all to do according to all their abominations that they have done for their gods, and you all would sin against the LORD, the God of you all.

¹⁹When you besiege a city for many days, fighting against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. For from them you may eat, so you shall not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, to come before you in the siege?

²⁰Only the trees that you know are not food trees you may destroy and cut down, and you shall build siege works against the city that is making war with you, until it falls.