Deuteronomy 20:13

The NET Bible®

The Lord your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
When the Lord your God hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword.

Hebrew Names Version
and when the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:

King James Version
And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

Lexham English Bible
And Yahweh your God will give it into your hand, and you shall kill all its males with the edge of the sword.

English Standard Version
And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword,

New Century Version
The Lord your God will give it to you. Then kill all the men with your swords,

Amplified Bible
"When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike down all the men in it with the edge of the sword.

New American Standard Bible
"When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And the Lord thy God shall deliuer it into thine handes, and thou shalt smite all the males thereof with the edge of the sworde.

Legacy Standard Bible
And Yahweh your God shall give it into your hand, and you shall strike all the males in it with the edge of the sword.

Complete Jewish Bible
When Adonai your God hands it over to you, you are to put every male to the sword.

Darby Translation
and when Jehovah thy God delivereth it into thy hand, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

Easy-to-Read Version
And when the Lord your God lets you take the city, you must kill all the men in it.

George Lamsa Translation
And when the LORD your God has delivered it into your hands, you shall slay all its males with the edge of the sword;

Good News Translation
Then, when the Lord your God lets you capture the city, kill every man in it.

Literal Translation
And Jehovah your God shall give it into your hand; and you shall strike every male of it by the mouth of the sword.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and whan the LORDE thy God delyuereth it in to thy hande, thou shalt smyte all the males that are therin, with the edge of the swerde:

American Standard Version
and when Jehovah thy God delivereth it into thy hand, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

Bible in Basic English
And when the Lord your God has given it into your hands, let every male in it be put to death without mercy.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And when the Lorde thy God hath deliuered it into thine handes, thou shalt smyte all the males therof with the edge of the sworde:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And when the LORD thy God delivereth it into thy hand, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword;

King James Version (1611)
And when the Lord thy God hath deliuered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite euery male thereof with the edge of the sword.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
until the Lord thy God shall deliver it into thy hands, and thou shalt smite every male of it with the edge of the sword:

English Revised Version
and when the LORD thy God delivereth it into thine hand, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

Berean Standard Bible
When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hands, you must strike down every male with the sword.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And whanne thi Lord God hath bitake it in thin hond, thou schalt smyte bi the scharpnesse of swerd al thing of male kynde which is ther ynne,

Young's Literal Translation
and Jehovah thy God hath given it into thy hand, and thou hast smitten every male of it by the mouth of the sword.

Update Bible Version
and when Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

Webster's Bible Translation
And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thy hands, thou shalt smite every male of it with the edge of the sword:

World English Bible
and when Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:

New King James Version
And when the LORD your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.

New Living Translation
When the Lord your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town.

New Life Bible
When the Lord your God gives the city to you, you must kill all the men in it with the sword.

New Revised Standard
and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and Yahweh thy God will deliver it into thy hand, - and thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when the Lord thy God shall deliver it into thy hands, thou shalt slay all that are therein of the male sex, with the edge of the sword,

Revised Standard Version
and when the LORD your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword.

Contextual Overview

¹⁰ When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. ¹² If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. ¹³ The Lord your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword. ¹⁴ However, 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. ¹⁵ This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations. ¹⁶ As 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. ¹⁷ Instead you must utterly annihilate them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God. ¹⁹ If 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!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thou shalt smite: Numbers 31:7-9, Numbers 31:17, Numbers 31:18, 1 Kings 11:15, 1 Kings 11:16, Psalms 2:6-12, Psalms 21:8, Psalms 21:9, Psalms 110:1, Luke 19:27, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9

Reciprocal: Numbers 31:15 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 12:1
Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father's household to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 12:9
Abram continually journeyed by stages down to the Negev.

Genesis 20:3
But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else's wife."

Genesis 20:5
Did Abraham not say to me, ‘She is my sister'? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.' I have done this with a clear conscience and with innocent hands!"

Genesis 20:11
Abraham replied, "Because I thought, ‘Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.'

1 Samuel 23:21
Saul replied, "May you be blessed by the Lord , for you have had compassion on me.

Psalms 64:5
They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. They plan how to hide snares, and boast, "Who will see them?"

Acts 5:9
Peter then told her, "Why have you agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out!"

Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands,.... When, what with pressures without, and calamities within, the city is obliged to surrender: this is not to be imputed to the methods and arts of war used in besieging, or to the courage and skill of the besiegers; but to the power and providence of God succeeding means used, and sending famine or pestilence among the besieged, and inclining their hearts to deliver up their city:

thou shall smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword; the men in it, grown persons, as distinguished from little ones in the next verse; because it was owing to these it was not surrendered at once, when terms of peace were offered.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Directions intended to prevent wanton destruction of life and property in sieges.

Deuteronomy 20:16

Forbearance, however, was not to be shown toward the Canaanite nations, which were to be utterly exterminated (compare Deuteronomy 7:1-4). The command did not apply to beasts as well as men (compare Joshua 11:11, Joshua 11:14).

Deuteronomy 20:19

The parenthesis may he more literally rendered “for man is a tree of the field,” i. e., has his life from the tree of the field, is supported in life by it (compare Deuteronomy 24:6). The Egyptians seem invariably to have cut down the fruit-trees in war.