1When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots, a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is with you, the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
2And it shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people.
3He shall say to them: ‘Hear, O Israel! Today you are drawing near to the battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart grow faint. Do not be afraid, do not tremble, and do not be terrified before them,
4for Yahweh your God is the one going 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 enjoyed its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy it.
7And who is the man who has betrothed 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.
8And the officers shall continue to speak to the people and say: ‘Who is the man who is afraid and faint of heart? Let him go and return to his house, so that he does not melt the heart of his brothers like his own heart.’
9And it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint commanders of the 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 it shall be, 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 and 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 by the edge of the sword.
14Only the women, the little ones, the livestock, and everything that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall consume 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 of the cities of these nations.
16Only in the cities of these peoples, which Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not let anything that breathes live.
17For you shall utterly devote them to destruction — the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite — as Yahweh your God has commanded you,
18so that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominations, which they have done for their gods, and so 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 wielding an axe against them; for from them you may eat, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should come under siege before you?
20Only a tree that you know is not a tree for food — that one you may destroy and cut down, and you may build siegeworks against the city that is making war against you until it falls.
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