2 And it
shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach
and speak unto the people,
3 And shall
say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your
enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye
terrified because of them [neither turn
aside from their face];
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 unto 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 die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.
6 And what
man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it [been made merry with it]? let him also
go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of
it [be made merry with it].
7 And what
man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and
return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.
8 And the
officers [the scribes] shall speak
further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful
and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s
heart faint as well as his heart.
9 And it
shall be, when the officers [the scribes]
have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of
the armies to lead the people.
10 When thou
comest nigh unto a city to fight against it
[overcome them by war], then proclaim peace unto it [call them out peaceably].
11 And it
shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall
be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto 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 thine hands, thou shalt smite every
male thereof with the edge of the sword:
14 But the
women, and the little ones [and the stuff],
and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt
thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which
the LORD thy God hath given thee.
15 Thus
shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off 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, and the Gergesite; as the LORD thy God
hath commanded thee:
18 That they
teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto
their gods; so should 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 thereof by forcing an axe 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
[Is the tree that is in the field a man, to enter before thee into the work of
the siege?]:
20 Only the
trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy
and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh
war with thee, until it be subdued.
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