Deuteronomy 20

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots, a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them, for God your God {is} with you, who raised you up from the land of Egypt. \*

And it will be, as you draw near to the battle, then the priest shall approach and speak to the people.

And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, Israel, you are approaching today to battle against your enemies. You shall not soften your hearts. You shall not fear or panic or be terrified of them,

for God your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ \*

And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who {is} the man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle and another man dedicate it. \*

And who {is} the man who has planted a vineyard and has not put it into use? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle and another man put it to use.

And who {is} the man who is engaged {to} a woman and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle and another man take her.’ \*

And the officers shall continue to speak to the people and say, ‘Who {is} the man who fears and {is} soft of heart? Let him go and return to his house, and the heart of his brother will not melt like his heart.’

And it will be, as the officers finish speaking to the people, then they shall appoint leaders of the armies as heads of the people. \*

When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then you shall call to it for peace.

And it will be, if it answers, ‘Peace,’ and opens to you, then it will be, all the people found in it shall become for you as forced labor and serve you. \*

But if it does not make peace with you and makes war with you, then you shall siege upon it,

and God your God will give it into your hand, and you shall strike every male by the mouth of the sword. \*

But the women and the children and the cattle and everything that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself, and you shall consume the spoil of your enemies, whom God your God has given to you.

Thus you shall do to all the cities very far from you, which {are} not from the cities of these nations here. \*

Only from the cities of these peoples that God your God is giving to you {as} an inheritance, all breathing things shall not live.

But devoting, you shall devote them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as God your God has commanded you,

so that they do not teach you to do like any of their abominations that they do for their gods, for you will sin against God your God. \*

When you lay siege to a city many days, battling against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against it, for you shall eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man to come from your face in the siege?

But a tree that you know that is not a tree for food, you shall destroy it and cut down, and you shall build siegeworks against the city which it makes war with you, until it falls. \*