| New American Standard Bible 1995 | New Living Translation |
| 1"When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. | 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! |
| 2"When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the people. | 2When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops. |
| 3"He shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before 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 the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.' | 4For the LORD your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’ |
| 5"The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, 'Who is the man that has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would 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. |
| 6'Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not begun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would begin to use 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. |
| 7'And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not married her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would marry 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.’ |
| 8"Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, 'Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that he might not make his brothers' hearts melt like his heart.' | 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.’ |
| 9"When the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people. | 9When the officers have finished speaking to their troops, they will appoint the unit commanders. |
| 10"When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. | 10“As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace. |
| 11"If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor 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. |
| 12"However, if it does not make 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. |
| 13"When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword. | 13When the LORD your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town. |
| 14"Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall use 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. |
| 15"Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby. | 15“But these instructions apply only to distant towns, not to the towns of the nations in the land you will enter. |
| 16"Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. | 16In those towns that the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. |
| 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, | 17You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the LORD your God has commanded you. |
| 18so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would 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 a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it 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? |
| 20"Only the trees which you know are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making 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. |
| New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit //www.lockman.org | 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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