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Laws of Warfare

¹ "When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^(C1)horses, chariots, and people more numerous than you, ^(C2)do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.² "When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people.³ "He shall say to them, 'Hear, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. ^(C1)Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them,⁴ for the LORD your God ^(C1)is the One who is going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.'⁵ "The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, 'Who is the man that has built a new house but has not ^(C1)dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it.⁶ 'And who is the man that has planted a vineyard but has not ^(F1)put it to use? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^(F1)would put it to use.⁷ '^(C1)And who is the man that is ^(F1)betrothed to a woman and has not ^(F2)married her? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would ^(F3)marry her.'⁸ "Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, '^(C1)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that ^(F1)he does not make his brothers' hearts melt like his heart!'⁹ "And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰ "When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall ^(F1)offer it terms of peace.¹¹ "And if it ^(F1)agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^(C1)forced labor and serve you.¹² "However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.¹³ "When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, ^(C1)you shall strike all the ^(F1)men in it with the edge of the sword.¹⁴ "However, the women, the children, ^(C1)the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall ^(F1)use the spoils of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.¹⁵ "This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations ^(F1)nearby.¹⁶ "^(C1)Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive.¹⁷ "Instead, you shall ^(F1)utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you,¹⁸ so that they will not teach you to do ^(F1)(C1)all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, ^(F2)by which you would ^(C2)sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁹ "When you besiege a city for 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, so you shall not cut them down. For ^(F1)is the tree of the field a human, that it should ^(F2)be besieged by you?²⁰ "Only the trees that you know ^(F1)are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war against you until it falls.