Deuteronomy 20:1 ←
When you go out to war against other nations, and come face to face with horses and war-carriages and armies greater in number than yourselves, have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you, who took you up out of the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 20:2 ←
And when you are on the point of attacking, let the priest come forward and say to the people,
Deuteronomy 20:3 ←
Give ear, O Israel: today you are going forward to the fight; let your heart be strong; do not let uncontrolled fear overcome you because of those who are against you;
Deuteronomy 20:4 ←
For the Lord your God goes with you, fighting for you to give you salvation from those who are against you.
Deuteronomy 20:5 ←
And let the overseers say to the people, If there is any man who has made for himself a new house and has not gone into it, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another may not take his house for himself.
Deuteronomy 20:6 ←
Or if any man has made a vine-garden without taking the first-fruits of it, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another may not be the first to make use of the fruit.
Deuteronomy 20:7 ←
Or if any man is newly married and has had no sex relations with his wife, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another man may not take her.
Deuteronomy 20:8 ←
And let the overseers go on to say to the people, If there is any man whose heart is feeble with fear, let him go back to his house before he makes the hearts of his countrymen feeble.
Deuteronomy 20:9 ←
Then, after saying these words to the people, let the overseers put captains over the army.
Deuteronomy 20:10 ←
When you come to a town, before attacking it, make an offer of peace.
Deuteronomy 20:11 ←
And if it gives you back an answer of peace, opening its doors to you, then all the people in it may be put to forced work as your servants.
Deuteronomy 20:12 ←
If however it will not make peace with you, but war, then let it be shut in on all sides:
Deuteronomy 20:13 ←
And when the Lord your God has given it into your hands, let every male in it be put to death without mercy.
Deuteronomy 20:14 ←
But the women and the children and the cattle and everything in the town and all its wealth, you may take for yourselves: the wealth of your haters, which the Lord your God has given you, will be your food.
Deuteronomy 20:15 ←
So you are to do to all the towns far away, which are not the towns of these nations.
Deuteronomy 20:16 ←
But in the towns of these peoples whose land the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, let no living thing be kept from death:
Deuteronomy 20:17 ←
Give them up to the curse; the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has given you orders:
Deuteronomy 20:18 ←
So that you may not take them as your example and do all the disgusting things which they do in the worship of their gods, so sinning against the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 20:19 ←
If in war a town is shut in by your armies for a long time, do not let its trees be cut down and made waste; for their fruit will be your food; are the trees of the countryside men for you to take up arms against them?
Deuteronomy 20:20 ←
Only those trees which you are certain are not used for food may be cut down and put to destruction: and you are to make walls of attack against the town till it is taken.
Public Domain