| New Living Translation | Berean Study Bible |
| 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! | 1When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you. |
| 2When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops. | 2When you are about to go into battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army, |
| 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. | 3saying to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be alarmed or terrified because of them. |
| 4For the LORD your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’ | 4For the LORD your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.” |
| 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. | 5Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. |
| 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. | 6Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit. |
| 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.’ | 7Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.” |
| 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.’ | 8Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.” |
| 9When the officers have finished speaking to their troops, they will appoint the unit commanders. | 9When the officers have finished addressing the army, they are to appoint commanders to lead it. |
| 10“As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace. | 10When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace. |
| 11If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. | 11If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you. |
| 12But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. | 12But if they refuse to make peace with you and wage war against you, lay siege to that city. |
| 13When the LORD your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town. | 13When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword. |
| 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. | 14But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you. |
| 15“But these instructions apply only to distant towns, not to the towns of the nations in the land you will enter. | 15This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. |
| 16In those towns that the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. | 16However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes. |
| 17You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the LORD your God has commanded you. | 17For you must devote them to complete destruction—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you, |
| 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. | 18so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God. |
| 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? | 19When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them? |
| 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. | 20But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls. |
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