1 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
2 It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people,
3 and shall tell them, Hear, Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies: don't let your heart faint; don't be afraid, nor tremble, neither be afraid of them;
4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
5 The officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there 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 What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used the fruit of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit of it.
7 What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, 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 The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother's heart melt as his heart.
9 It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people.
10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.
11 It shall be, if it make you an offer of peace, and open to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found in it shall become vassals to you, and shall serve you.
12 If it will not make peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:
13 and when the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, you shall slay every male of it 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 of it, shall you take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.
15 Thus shall you do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 But of the cities of these peoples, that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;
17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as the Lord your God has commanded you;
18 so that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so that you would sin against the Lord your God.
19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field a man, that you should besiege it?
20 Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you may destroy and cut them down, so you can build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.