1When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses and chariots and people more than thou, be not afeared of them, for the LORD thy God is with thee which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
2And when ye are come nigh unto battle, let the priest come forth and speak unto the people
3and say unto them: Hear Israel, ye are come unto battle against your enemies, let not your hearts faint, neither fear nor be amazed nor a dread of them.
4For the LORD thy God goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies and to save you.
5And let the officers speak unto the people saying: If any man have built a new house and have not dedicate it, let him go and return to his house lest he die in the battle, and another dedicate it.
6And if any man have planted a vineyard and have not made it common, let him go and return again unto his house, lest he die in the battle and another make it common.
7And if any man be betrothed unto a wife and have not taken her, let him go and return again unto his house, lest he die in the battle and another take her.
8And let the officers speak further unto the people and say. If any man fear and be fainthearted, let him go and return unto his house, lest his brother's heart be made faint as well as his.
9And when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, let them make captains of war over them.
10When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, offer them peace.
11And if they answer thee again peaceably, and open unto thee, then let all the people that is found therein be tributaries unto thee and serve thee.
12But and if they will make no peace with thee, then make war against the city and besiege it.
13And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, smite all the males thereof with the edge of the sword,
14save the women and the children and the cattle and all that is in the city and all the spoil thereof take unto thyself and eat the spoil of thine enemies which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
15Thus thou shalt do unto all the cities which are a great way off from thee and not of the cities of these nations.
16But in the cities of these nations which the LORD thy God giveth thee to inherit, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.
17But shalt destroy them without redemption, both the Hethites, the Amorites, the Cananites, the Pherezites, the Hevites and the Jebusites, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee,
18that they teach you not to do after all their abominations which they do unto their gods, and so should sin against the LORD your God.
19When thou hast besieged a city long time in making war against it to take it, destroy not the trees thereof, that thou wouldest thrust an axe unto them. For thou mayst eat of them, and therefore destroy them not. For the trees of the fields are no men that they might come against thee to besiege thee.
20Neverthelater those trees which thou knowest that men eat not of them, thou mayst destroy and cut them down and make bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be overthrown.