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¹ When thou goest out to battle against thy enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, [and] a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God [is] with thee, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.² And it shall be when ye are come nigh to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people,³ And shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day to battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;⁴ For the LORD your God [is] he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.⁵ And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man [is there] that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he should die in the battle, and another man should dedicate it.⁶ And what man [is he] that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not [yet] eaten of it? let him [also] go and return to his house, lest he should die in the battle, and another man should eat of it.⁷ And what man [is there] that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he should die in battle, and another man should take her.⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man [is there that is] fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return to his house, lest his brethren's heart should faint as well as his heart.⁹ And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

¹⁰ When thou comest nigh to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.¹¹ And it shall be, if it shall make thee answer of peace, and open to thee, then it shall be, [that] all the people [that are] found therein, shall be tributaries to thee, and they shall serve thee.¹² And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:¹³ 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:¹⁴ But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, [even] all the spoil of it, shalt thou take to thyself: and thou shalt eat the spoil of thy enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.¹⁵ Thus shalt thou do to all the cities [which are] very distant from thee, which [are] not of the cities of these nations.¹⁶ But of the cities of these people which the LORD thy God doth give thee [for] an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:¹⁷ But thou shalt utterly destroy them, [namely], the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:¹⁸ That they may not teach you to do after all their abominations which they have done to their gods; so would ye sin against the LORD your God.¹⁹ When thou shalt besiege a city a long time in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees of it by forcing an ax against them; for thou mayest eat of them: and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field [is] man's [life]) to employ [them] in the siege:²⁰ Only the trees which thou knowest that they [are] not trees for food, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it shall be subdued.