Deuteronomy 20

When you go out to war against your enemies and you see horses, chariots, and an army bigger than yours, do not be afraid of them. The LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, is with you.

1When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

NoteChariots were the most feared weapon of the age: fast, expensive platforms for archers, maintained by settled kingdoms with the wealth and flat terrain for them. Israel is pictured here as a foot army facing an enemy that has them.

2When you are about to go into battle, the priest is to step forward and speak to the army.

2And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,

NotePriests served at the sanctuary, handling sacrifice and ritual. A priest traveling with the army and addressing it before battle was standard practice; later Jewish tradition gave this figure a title, "the priest anointed for war."

3He will say to them, "Listen, Israel. Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not lose your courage. Do not be afraid, do not shake, and do not let them terrify you.

3And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;

4The LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will fight for you against your enemies and give you the victory."

4For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

5Then the officers are to speak to the army and say, "Has any man built a new house and not yet dedicated it? Let him go back home. If not, he may die in battle and another man will dedicate it.

5And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.

Note"Officers" here translates a Hebrew word for civil officials, administrators and record-keepers who mustered the people. They are not the battlefield commanders, who are only appointed in verse 9. / Moving into a newly built house was marked by a dedication ceremony and feast; until that happened the builder had not yet properly taken possession of it.

6Has any man planted a vineyard and not yet eaten any of its fruit? Let him go back home too. If not, he may die in battle and another man will eat its fruit.

6And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it.

NoteIsraelite law forbade eating the fruit of a newly planted vine for its first three years, and gave the fourth year's crop to God (Leviticus 19:23–25). A man who had just planted a vineyard therefore faced a wait of several years before his first harvest was his own.

7Has any man promised to marry a woman but not yet married her? Let him go back home. If not, he may die in battle and another man will marry her."

7And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.

NoteBetrothal was a binding legal contract, much stronger than a modern engagement, ending it required a divorce. The woman normally stayed in her father's household until the husband "took" her, that is, brought her home and completed the marriage.

8Then the officers are to say more to the army: "Is any man afraid or discouraged? Let him go back home, so that his fellow soldiers do not lose heart the way he has."

8And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.

9When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they are to put commanders in charge to lead the troops.

9And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

10When you come up to a city to attack it, first offer it terms of peace.

10When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.

NoteAn offer of peace before a siege was a formal demand for surrender on terms, not a truce or a peace treaty between equals. Accepting it meant opening the gates and submitting, as the next verse spells out.

11If the city accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, then all the people in it are to become forced labor for you and serve you.

11And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.

NoteThe King James word "tributaries" does not mean people who pay tribute money. The Hebrew term means forced labor: conscripted work gangs put to state projects such as building and quarrying.

12But if the city will not make peace with you and fights you instead, then surround it and lay siege to it.

12And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:

13When the LORD your God hands it over to you, you must kill every male in it with the sword.

13And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

NoteThe Hebrew says simply "every male," without specifying age; some readers understand it as the fighting men, since the following verse deals separately with women and children, while others take it to include all males. The text does not settle the question.

14But the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city may be taken by you as plunder. You may use what you take from your enemies, which the LORD your God gives you.

14But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

Note"Spoil" is plunder: goods, animals and captives taken from a defeated city. Dividing it was the normal payment of an ancient army.

15This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and that do not belong to the nations living in this land.

15Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.

16But in the cities of these nations, which the LORD your God is giving you to own, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.

16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

Note"Anything that breathes" is a stock Hebrew phrase for every living thing, people and animals alike.

17You must completely destroy them: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, just as the LORD your God has commanded you.

17But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:

Note"Utterly destroy" translates a Hebrew verb related to the noun *herem*: to put something permanently beyond ordinary human use by handing it over entirely, which in warfare meant killing the population and keeping no plunder. The practice was not unique to Israel, the Moabite king Mesha used the same word around 840 BC of what he did to an Israelite town. / The six names are the standard list for the population of Canaan before Israel's arrival. Some are tied to particular places (the Jebusites held Jerusalem), while "Canaanite" and "Amorite" are also used loosely for the region's inhabitants as a whole.

18Do this so they cannot teach you to copy all the detestable things they do for their gods, which would make you sin against the LORD your God.

18That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

Note"Detestable things" renders a Hebrew word for practices regarded as repugnant. Here it refers to the worship customs of the local gods; elsewhere in Deuteronomy (12:31) the specific example given is child sacrifice.

19When you lay siege to a city for a long time while fighting to capture it, do not destroy its trees by cutting them with an axe. You may eat their fruit, so do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?

19When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:

NoteThe last clause of this verse is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew, which has no question mark. The same words can be read as a statement (the King James took it that way, "the tree of the field is man's life") or as a rhetorical question, "is the tree of the field a man, that you should besiege it?", which is how most modern translations read it. Both readings are defensible from the consonants on the page.

20You may destroy and cut down only the trees you know do not produce food. Use them to build siege works against the city that is fighting you, until it falls.

20Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.

NoteSiege works were built largely of timber: earth-and-rubble ramps faced with wood, mobile towers, screens to shelter attackers, and rams. That is why an army camped outside a city for months was a serious threat to its orchards.