Deuteronomy 20

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

2And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people,

3and say to them, ‘Hear, Israel: today you are drawing near to battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart grow faint. Do not fear, or panic, or be terrified because of them.’

4For Yahweh your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

5Then 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 enjoyed its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit.

7And who is the man who has become engaged to a woman and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.

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

9And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of 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 if it answers you with peace and opens to you, then all the people found in it shall become forced labor for you and shall serve you.

12But if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

13And Yahweh your God will give it into your hand, and you shall strike down all its males with the edge of the sword.

14Only the women, the little children, the livestock, and everything that is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder for yourself; and you may eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh 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.

16But from the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not let any living thing remain alive.

17Instead, you must utterly destroy them—the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—as Yahweh your God has commanded you.

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

19When you besiege a city for many days, fighting against it 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. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should come before you in the siege?

20Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, those you may destroy and cut down, and build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you, until you bring it down.