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Deuteronomy 20 :: New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB95)

Laws of Warfare

Deu 20:1

Deu 20:1“When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.

Deu 20:2

Deu 20:2“When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the people.

Deu 20:3

Deu 20:3“He shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them,

Deu 20:4

Deu 20:4for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

Deu 20:5

Deu 20:5“The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it.

Deu 20:6

Deu 20:6‘Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not [fn]begun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man [fn]would begin to use its fruit.

Deu 20:7

Deu 20:7‘And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not [fn]married her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man [fn]would marry her.’

Deu 20:8

Deu 20:8“Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that [fn]he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’

Deu 20:9

Deu 20:9“When the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

Deu 20:10

Deu 20:10“When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall [fn]offer it terms of peace.

Deu 20:11

Deu 20:11“If it [fn]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you.

Deu 20:12

Deu 20:12“However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

Deu 20:13

Deu 20:13“When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the [fn]men in it with the edge of the sword.

Deu 20:14

Deu 20:14“Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall [fn]use the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.

Deu 20:15

Deu 20:15“Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations [fn]nearby.

Deu 20:16

Deu 20:16“Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.

Deu 20:17

Deu 20:17“But you shall [fn]utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the LORD your God has commanded you,

Deu 20:18

Deu 20:18so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the LORD your God.

Deu 20:19

Deu 20:19“When you besiege a city a long time, to make war against it in order 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. [fn]For is the tree of the field a man, that it should [fn]be besieged by you?

Deu 20:20

Deu 20:20“Only the trees which you know [fn]are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.
See the NASB95 Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NASB95 Footnotes
Literally: treat(ed) it as common
Literally: taken
Literally: take
So with Gr and other ancient versions
Literally: call to it for peace
Literally: answers peace
Literally: males
Literally: eat
Literally: here
Or, put them under the ban
Read as interrogative with ancient versions
Literally: come before you in the siege
Literally: they are not trees for food
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New American Standard Bible 1995
Copyright (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
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For more information on this translation, see the NASB95 Preface.

Deuteronomy Chapter 20 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

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