| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1“When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, 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. | 1“When you go out to fight your enemies and you face horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid. The LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you! |
| 2And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people | 2When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops. |
| 3and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, | 3He will say to them, ‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! Do not lose heart or panic or tremble before them. |
| 4for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ | 4For the LORD your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’ |
| 5Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. | 5“Then the officers of the army must address the troops and say, ‘Has anyone here just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, you may go home! You might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate your house. |
| 6And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. | 6Has anyone here just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, you may go home! You might die in battle, and someone else would eat the first fruit. |
| 7And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ | 7Has anyone here just become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? Well, you may go home and get married! You might die in the battle, and someone else would marry her.’ |
| 8And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ | 8“Then the officers will also say, ‘Is anyone here afraid or worried? If you are, you may go home before you frighten anyone else.’ |
| 9And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people. | 9When the officers have finished speaking to their troops, they will appoint the unit commanders. |
| 10“When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. | 10“As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace. |
| 11And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. | 11If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. |
| 12But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. | 12But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. |
| 13And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, | 13When the LORD your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town. |
| 14but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. | 14But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the plunder from your enemies that the LORD your God has given you. |
| 15Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. | 15“But these instructions apply only to distant towns, not to the towns of the nations in the land you will enter. |
| 16But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, | 16In those towns that the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. |
| 17but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, | 17You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the LORD your God has commanded you. |
| 18that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God. | 18This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the LORD your God. |
| 19“When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? | 19“When you are attacking a town and the war drags on, you must not cut down the trees with your axes. You may eat the fruit, but do not cut down the trees. Are the trees your enemies, that you should attack them? |
| 20Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls. | 20You may only cut down trees that you know are not valuable for food. Use them to make the equipment you need to attack the enemy town until it falls. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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