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Deuteronomy 20 :: New English Translation (NET)

Deu 20:1

Deu 20:1When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry and troops who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Deu 20:2

Deu 20:2As you move forward for battle, the priest will approach and say to the soldiers,

Deu 20:3

Deu 20:3"Listen, Israel! Today you are moving forward to do battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted. Do not fear and tremble or be terrified because of them,

Deu 20:4

Deu 20:4for the LORD your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory."

Deu 20:5

Deu 20:5Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, "Who among you has built a new house and not dedicated it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else dedicate it.

Deu 20:6

Deu 20:6Or who among you has planted a vineyard and not benefited from it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else benefit from it.

Deu 20:7

Deu 20:7Or who among you has become engaged to a woman but has not married her? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else marry her."

Deu 20:8

Deu 20:8In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, "Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier's heart as fearful as his own."

Deu 20:9

Deu 20:9Then, when the officers have finished speaking, they must appoint unit commanders to lead the troops.

Deu 20:10

Deu 20:10When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace.

Deu 20:11

Deu 20:11If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves.

Deu 20:12

Deu 20:12If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it.

Deu 20:13

Deu 20:13The LORD your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword.

Deu 20:14

Deu 20:14However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city - all its plunder - you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the LORD your God has given you.

Deu 20:15

Deu 20:15This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

Deu 20:16

Deu 20:16As for the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive.

Deu 20:17

Deu 20:17Instead you must utterly annihilate them - the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites - just as the LORD your God has commanded you,

Deu 20:18

Deu 20:18so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the LORD your God.

Deu 20:19

Deu 20:19If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, you must not chop down its trees, for you may eat fruit from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it!

Deu 20:20

Deu 20:20However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, and you may use it to build siege works against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.
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