1“When you go to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them: for the LORD your God, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. 2And when you come near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the troops, 3And say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you go to battle against your enemies; be courageous and fear not; do not tremble, nor be afraid of them; 4For the LORD your God is He Who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, and give you victory.’ 5And the officers shall say to the troops, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house, and has not begun to live in it? Let him return to his house, so that he does not die in the battle, and another man be first to live in it. 6And if there is a man that has planted a vineyard, and has yet to eat from it? Let him also return to his house, so that he does not die in the battle, and another first eats of it. 7And is there a man that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? Let him return to his house so that he does not die and another man take her.’ 8And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Let whoever fearful and fainthearted return to his house, so that he does not cause his fellow soldiers to become fainthearted as well as himself.’ 9And when the officers have finished speaking to the troops, they shall appoint captains of the armies to lead the people.

10“When you approach a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. 11And if it responds to you with an answer of peace, and opens to you, then all the people found in it shall serve as forced labor for you. 12But if it will make no peace, but wages war against you, then you shall besiege it: 13And when the LORD your God has delivered it into your hands, you shall strike every man there with the sword: 14But the women, little ones, cattle, and all that is in the city - all its contents, shall you take for yourself; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. 15This is how you must treat all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of the nearby nations. 16But of the cities of the people, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, you must leave nothing alive and breathing. 17You must utterly destroy these people: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD your God has commanded you, 18So that they do not teach you to do the abominable things they have done with their gods; causing you to sin against the LORD your God.

19“When you besiege a city for a long time, in waging war to take it, you must not destroy its fruit trees by putting an axe to them; for you may eat fruit of them; you must not cut them down for use in the siege. 20You shall only cut down and destroy those trees that are not fruit trees; to build bulwarks against the city that wages war with you, until it be subdued.