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Deuteronomy 20

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Preparation and Divine Assurance in War 1–4

1
When thou goest out to battle against thine 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, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. ​
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;
4
For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. ​

Exemptions from Military Service 5–9

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? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of 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 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 have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

Rules for Engaging Distant Cities 10–15

10
When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. ​
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 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.

The Law of Utter Destruction (Herem) 16–18

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 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. ​

Rules Regarding Siege Warfare and Trees 19–20

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: ​
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.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Deuteronomy 20

Verse 1

horses, and chariots — The ground of ‘be not afraid’ (yare’) is the LORD ‘which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt’, where Pharaoh pursued with ‘all the horses and chariots’ (Ex 14:9) and ‘the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea’ (Ex 15:1). ‘Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God’ (Ps 20:7).

Verse 2

the priest shall approach — Nagash, to come near. The priest speaks to the army before the engagement, and the trumpets belong to the priests: ‘ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your God’ (Num 10:9). Phinehas went to war with ‘the holy instruments, and the trumpets’ (Num 31:6).

Verse 4

goeth with you, to fight for you — The priest’s reason is the same as Moses’ at the sea: ‘The LORD shall fight for you’ (Ex 14:14), and ‘The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you’ (Deut 1:30). ‘Save’ is yasha. He who ‘is a man of war’ (Ex 15:3) is also the one who saves.

Verse 5

hath not dedicated it — Chanak, to dedicate, occurs in only four verses: here, 1 Kings 8:63 and 2 Chr 7:5 (Solomon dedicating the house of the LORD), and as ‘train up’ in Prov 22:6. The exemptions go on with the unharvested vineyard (v.6) and the betrothed wife (v.7); a newly married man is likewise ‘free at home one year’ (Deut 24:5).

Verse 8

fearful and fainthearted — The fainthearted man is told to go home ‘lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart’. ‘Faint’ is masas, to melt, as in Josh 2:11, ‘our hearts did melt’. Gideon applied the same rule to his host, ‘Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return’, and 22,000 went home (Judg 7:3).

Verse 10

proclaim peace unto it — Qara’, to call out, and shalom, peace. The offer comes first, and a city that ‘make thee answer of peace’ becomes tributary and serves (v.11); only if it ‘will make no peace’ is it besieged (v.12). Moses did the same with Sihon, sending ‘words of peace’ (Deut 2:26), and Sihon refused (Deut 2:30).

Verse 13

every male thereof — Zakur, male. This is the rule for cities ‘very far off’ (v.15): the men are put to the sword, but ‘the women, and the little ones, and the cattle’ are taken as spoil (v.14). The cities of the nations in the land itself fall under a different command (vv.16–18).

Verse 18

their abominations — Towebah, a thing the LORD abhors. The cities of vv.16–17 are not spared lest they ‘teach you not to do after all their abominations’ (cf. Deut 12:30–31; Ex 23:33). Their removal is for ‘the wickedness of these nations’ (Deut 9:4–5), and came when ‘the iniquity of the Amorites’ was full (Gen 15:16).

Verse 19

the tree of the field is man’s life — No axe (garzen, found only four times in all, here and in 19:5) may be forced against the fruit trees of a besieged city, since ‘thou mayest eat of them’. Only ‘the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat’ may be cut for bulwarks (v.20). ‘Cut down’ is karath, as in 19:5.