Deuteronomy 20

All 20 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
2. 2When you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people.
3. 3He will say, "Listen, Israel! Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Don't lose heart. Don't be afraid, don't panic, and don't be terrified of them.
4. 4For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
5. 5Then the officers will speak to the troops and say, "Has anyone here built a new house but not yet dedicated it? He should go home, so that if he dies in battle, someone else won't be the one to dedicate it.
6. 6Has anyone planted a vineyard but not yet enjoyed its fruit? He should go home, so that if he dies in battle, someone else won't be the one to enjoy it.
7. 7Has anyone become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? He should go home, so that if he dies in battle, someone else won't marry her."
8. 8The officers will also say, 'Is anyone here afraid or fainthearted? He should go home, so his fellow soldiers' hearts do not become faint like his own.'
9. 9Once the officers have finished speaking to the troops, they will appoint commanders to lead the army.
10. 10When you approach a city to attack it, first offer it terms of peace.
11. 11If the city accepts your offer and opens its gates, then all the people living there will become your forced laborers and serve you.
12. 12But if the city refuses to make peace and chooses to fight, then lay siege to it.
13. 13When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every male in the city with the sword.
14. 14But the women, children, livestock, and everything else in the city — all its plunder — you may keep for yourselves. You may use the plunder from your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.
15. 15This is how you are to treat cities that are far away from you — cities that don't belong to the nations nearby.
16. 16But in the cities of these peoples, which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes stay alive.
17. 17You must completely destroy them — the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — just as the LORD your God has commanded you.
18. 18This is so they can't teach you to imitate the disgusting things they do for their gods, which would lead you to sin against the LORD your God.
19. 19When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by using an axe against them, for you may eat from them. You must not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to use them in the siege:
20. 20However, trees that you know don't produce food — those you may cut down and destroy. Use them to build siege works against the city that is fighting you, until it falls.