Deuteronomy 20

Revised Geneva Translation

20 “When you shall go forth to war against your enemies and shall see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them. For the LORD your God is with you, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

² “And when you have come near the battle, then the Priest shall come forth to speak to the people,

³ “and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel. You have come this day to battle against your enemies. Do not let your hearts faint or fear or tremble or dread them.

⁴ ‘For the LORD your God goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

⁵ “And let the officers speak to the people, saying, ‘Whatever man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it, let him go and return to his house, lest he dies in the battle and another man dedicates it.

⁶ ‘And whatever man who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of the fruit, let him go back to his house, lest he dies in the battle and another eats the fruit.

⁷ ‘And whatever man who has betrothed a wife and has not yet married her, let him go back to his house, lest he die in battle and another man marries her.’

⁸ “And let the officers speak further to the people, and say, ‘Whoever is afraid and faint-hearted, let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart faints like his heart.’

⁹ “And after the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, they shall make captains of the army to govern the people.

¹⁰ “When you come near to a city, to fight against it, you shall offer it peace.

¹¹ “And if it answers you peaceably, and opens to you, then let all the people who are found in it be tributaries to you and serve you.

¹² “But if it will make no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

¹³ “And the LORD your God shall deliver it into your hands. And you shall strike all its males with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴ “But the women and the children and the cattle and all that is in the city, all its spoil you shall take for yourself. And you shall eat the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.

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

¹⁶ “But of the cities of this people, which the LORD your God shall give you to inherit, you shall save no person alive.

¹⁷ “But you shall utterly destroy them—the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—as the LORD your God has Commanded you,

¹⁸ “so that they do not teach you to follow after all their abominations which they have done for their gods, that you should sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁹ “When you have besieged a city for a long time, and made war against it, to take it, do not destroy its trees by striking them with an axe. If you may eat from them, then you shall not cut them down to further yourself in the siege, (for the tree of the field is man’s sustenance).

²⁰ “Only those trees which you know are not for food shall you destroy and cut down and make forts against the city that makes war with you, until you subdue it.”