1 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses,
and chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of
them; for Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of
Egypt. 2 It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the
priest shall approach and speak to the people, 3 and shall tell them,
Hear, Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies:
don’t let your heart faint; don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be
scared of them; 4 for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight
for you against your enemies, to save you. 5 The officers shall speak to
the people, saying, What man is there 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. 6 What man is there who has planted a
vineyard, and has not used the fruit of it? let him go and return to his
house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit of it.
7 What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not
taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and
another man take her. 8 The officers shall speak further to the people,
and they shall say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? let
him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.
9 It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the
people, that they shall appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people.
10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace
to it. 11 It shall be, if it make you answer of peace, and open to you,
then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become
tributary to you, and shall serve you. 12 If it will make no peace with
you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it: 13 and when
Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it
with the edge of the sword: 14 but the women, and the little ones, and the
cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil of it, shall you take
for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which
Yahweh your God has given you. 15 Thus shall you do to all the cities
which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these
nations. 16 But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your God gives
you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; 17 but
you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite,
and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Yahweh your God has
commanded you; 18 that they not teach you to do after all their
abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin
against Yahweh your God. 19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in
making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees of it by
wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut
them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of
you? 20 Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food,
you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the
city that makes war with you, until it fall.
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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