CHAPTER 20
1 If thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and thou seest a multitude of knights, and of chariots, and a greater multitude of the adversary’s host than thou hast, thou shalt not dread them; for thy Lord God is with thee, that led thee out of the land of Egypt.
2 Soothly when the battle nigheth now, the priest shall stand before the battle array, and thus he shall speak to the people,
3 Thou, Israel, hear today, ye have battle against your enemies; your heart dread not, be ye not afeared; do not ye give stead, dread ye not them;
4 for your Lord God is in the midst of you, and he shall fight for you against your adversaries, that he deliver you from peril.
5 But the leaders shall cry by all the companies, while the host shall hear, Who is the man that hath builded a new house, and hath hallowed not it? go he and turn again into his house, lest peradventure he die in battle, and another man hallow it.
6 Who is the man that planted a vinery [or vine], and hath not yet made it to be common, and of which it is leaveful to all men to eat? go he, and turn again into his house, lest peradventure he die in battle, and another man be set in his office.
7 Who is the man that hath espoused a wife, and hath not taken her by fleshly knowing? go he, and turn again into his house, lest peradventure he die in battle, and another man take her.
8 When these things be said, the leaders of the host shall add to other things, and they shall speak to the people, and say, Who is a fearful man, and of dreadful heart? go he, and turn again into his house, lest he make his brethren’s hearts to dread, as he is aghast by dread.
9 And when the dukes of the host be still, and have made end of speaking, each chieftain of thy host shall make ready his companies to battle.
10 If any time thou shalt go to a city to overcome it, first thou shalt proffer peace to it.
11 If the city receiveth thy peace, and openeth to thee the gates, all the people that is therein shall be saved, and it shall serve thee under tribute.
12 But if they will not make bond of peace with thee, and begin battle against thee, thou shalt fight against it.
13 And when thy Lord God hath betaken it in thine hands, thou shalt smite by the sharpness of sword all thing of male kind that is therein,
14 without women, and young chil-dren, beasts, and other things that be in the city. Thou shalt part all the prey to the host, and thou shalt eat of the spoils of thine enemies, which spoils thy Lord God hath given to thee.
15 Thus thou shalt do to all the cities, that be full far from thee, and be not of these cities which thou shalt take into possession.
16 But of these cities that shall be given to thee, thou shalt not suffer any to live, but thou shalt slay by the sharpness of sword;
17 that is to say, Hittites, and Amorites, and Canaanites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites, as thy Lord God hath commanded to thee;
18 lest peradventure they teach you to do all the abominations, which they have wrought to their gods, and ye do sin against your Lord God.
19 When thou hast besieged a city by long time, and thou hast compassed it with strongholds that thou overcome it, thou shalt not cut down the trees, of which men may eat/of which fruit may be eaten, neither thou shalt waste the country about with axes; for it is a tree, and not a man, neither it may increase the number of fighters against thee.
20 And if any of them be not apple trees, but be wild, and able into other uses, cut them down, and make of them engines, till thou take the city that fighteth against thee.