1 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and shall see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them, for יהוה your Elohim, who brought you up from the land of Mitsrayim, is with you.
2 “And it shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall come and speak to the people,
3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Yisra’ĕl: You are drawing near today to battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not fear, or tremble, or be afraid before them,
4 for יהוה your Elohim is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’
5 “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 the battle and another man dedicate it.
6 ‘And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not begun to use it? Let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man should begin to use it.
7 ‘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 the battle and another man take her.’
8 “And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Who is the man who is afraid and tender of heart? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brothers faint like his heart.’
9 “And it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint commanders of the divisions to lead the people.
10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then you shall make a call for peace to it.
11 “And it shall be that if it accepts your call for peace, and shall open to you, then all the people found in it are to be your compulsory labour, and serve you.
12 “But if it does not make peace with you, and shall fight against you, then you shall besiege it,
13 and יהוה your Elohim shall give it into your hands, and you shall smite every male in it with the edge of the sword.
14 “Only the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you take as plunder for yourself. And you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which יהוה your Elohim gives you.
15 “Do so to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 “Only, of the cities of these peoples which יהוה your Elohim gives you as an inheritance, you do not keep alive any that breathe,
17 but you shall certainly put them under the ban: the Ḥittite and the Amorite and the Kena‛anite and the Perizzite and the Ḥiwwite and the Yeḇusite, as יהוה your Elohim has commanded you,
18 lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their mighty ones, and you sin against יהוה your Elohim.
19 “When you besiege a city for a long time by fighting against it to take it, you do not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. If you do eat of them, do not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man to be besieged by you?
20 “Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you do destroy and cut down, to build siege-works against the city that is fighting against you, until it falls.