1 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ADeut 3:22; 7:18; 31:6, 8; Ps 20:7; Is 31:1horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, B2 Chr 32:7, 8; Ps 23:4; Is 41:10do not be afraid of them; for the Loʀᴅ 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. ADeut 20:1; Josh 23:10Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, 4 for the Loʀᴅ your God ADeut 1:30; 3:22; Josh 23:10is 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 ANeh 12:27dedicated 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 1Lit treat(ed) it as commonbegun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man 1Lit treat(ed) it as commonwould begin to use its fruit. 7  ‘ADeut 24:5And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not 1Lit takenmarried her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man 2Lit takewould marry her.’ 8  “Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘AJudg 7:3Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that 1So with Gr and other ancient versionshe 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 1Lit call to it for peaceoffer it terms of peace. 11  “If it 1Lit answers peaceagrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your A1 Kin 9:21forced 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 Loʀᴅ your God gives it into your hand, ANum 31:7you shall strike all the 1Lit malesmen in it with the edge of the sword. 14  “Only the women and the children and AJosh 8:2the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall 1Lit eatuse the spoil of your enemies which the Loʀᴅ 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 1Lit herenearby. 16  “AEx 23:31-33; Num 21:2, 3; Deut 7:1-5; Josh 11:14Only in the cities of these peoples that the Loʀᴅ your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. 17  “But you shall 1Or put them under the banutterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Loʀᴅ your God has commanded you, 18 so that they may not teach you to do AEx 34:12-16; Deut 7:4; 9:5; 12:30, 31according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would BEx 23:33; 2 Kin 21:3-15; Ps 106:34-41sin against the Loʀᴅ 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. 1Read as interrogative with ancient versionsFor is the tree of the field a man, that it should 2Lit come before you in the siegebe besieged by you? 20  “Only the trees which you know 1Lit they are not trees for foodare 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.