The Wilderness Years

He should tell them, 'Listen, Isra'el! You are about to do battle against your enemies. Don't be fainthearted or afraid; don't be alarmed or frightened by them;

because ADONAI your God is going with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies and give you victory.'

"Then the officials will speak to the soldiers. They are to say, 'Is there a man here who has built a new house, but hasn't dedicated it yet? He should go back home now; otherwise he may die fighting, and another man will dedicate it.

"'Is there a man here who has planted a vineyard, but hasn't yet made use of its fruit? He should go back home; otherwise he may die fighting, and another man will use it.

"'Is there a man here who is engaged to a woman, but hasn't married her yet? He should go back home; otherwise he may die fighting, and another man will marry her.'

"The officials will then add to what they have said to the soldiers: 'Is there a man here who is afraid and fainthearted? He should go back home; otherwise his fear may demoralize his comrades as well.'

When the officials have finished speaking with the soldiers, commanders are to be appointed to lead the army.

"When you advance on a town to attack it, first offer it terms for peace.

If it accepts the terms for peace and opens its gates to you, then all the people there are to be put to forced labor and work for you.

However, if they refuse to make peace with you but prefer to make war against you, you are to put it under siege.

When ADONAI your God hands it over to you, you are to put every male to the sword.

However, you are to take as booty for yourself the women, the little ones, the livestock, and everything in the city - all its spoil. Yes, you will feed on your enemies' spoil, which ADONAI your God has given you.

This is what you are to do to all the towns which are at a great distance from you, which are not the towns of these nations.

"As for the towns of these peoples, which ADONAI your God is giving you as your inheritance, you are not to allow anything that breathes to live.

Rather you must destroy them completely - the Hitti, the Emori, the Kena'ani, the P'rizi, the Hivi and the Y'vusi - as ADONAI your God has ordered you;

so that they won't teach you to follow their abominable practices, which they do for their gods, thus causing you to sin against ADONAI your God.

"When, in making war against a town in order to capture it, you lay siege to it for a long time, you are not to destroy its trees, cutting them down with an axe. You can eat their fruit, so don't cut them down. After all, are the trees in the field human beings, so that you have to besiege them too?

However, if you know that certain trees provide no food, you may destroy them and cut them down, in order to build siege-works against the town making war with you, until it falls.

"If, in the land ADONAI your God is giving you to possess, a murder victim is found lying in the countryside; and the perpetrator of the murder is not known;

then your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance between it and the surrounding towns.

After it has been determined which town is the closest, the leaders of that town are to take a young female cow that has never been put to work or yoked for use as a draft animal.

The leaders of that town are to bring the heifer down to a vadi with a stream in it that never dries up, to a place that is neither plowed nor sown; and they are to break the cow's neck there in the vadi.

Then the cohanim, who are L'vi'im, are to approach; for ADONAI your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in the name of ADONAI; they will decide the outcome of every dispute and matter involving violence.

All the leaders of the town nearest the murder victim are to wash their hands over the cow whose neck was broken in the vadi.

Then they are to speak up and say, 'This blood was not shed by our hands, nor have we seen who did it.