1 When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.
2 As you approach the battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army.
3 He is to say to them, "Listen, Israel: today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not lose heart. Do not be afraid, do not be alarmed, and do not be terrified by them,
4 for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight your enemies for you and to save you."
5 Then the officials are to say to the army, "Has anyone built a new house and not yet dedicated it? Let him go back home, or he may die in the battle and someone else dedicate it.
6 Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him go back home, or he may die in the battle and someone else enjoy it.
7 Has anyone become engaged to a woman and not yet married her? Let him go back home, or he may die in the battle and someone else marry her."
8 The officials are to speak further to the army: "Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go back home, so that his brothers' hearts will not melt as his has."
9 When the officials have finished addressing the army, they are to appoint commanders of the troops to lead them.
10 When you come up to a city to attack it, first offer it terms of peace.
11 If it responds peaceably and opens its gates to you, then all the people in it are to become forced laborers for you and work for you.
12 If it refuses to make peace with you and fights against you, lay siege to it.
13 When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put all its males to the sword.
14 But the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you may take as plunder for yourself. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.
15 That is how you are to treat all the cities that are a long way from you, those that do not belong to the nations here.
16 In the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, however, do not leave anything alive that breathes.
17 You must devote them to destruction, the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded you,
18 so that they cannot teach you to practice all the detestable things they do for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.
19 When you besiege a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to take it, do not ruin its trees by taking an axe to them. You may eat their fruit, but do not cut them down. Is the tree of the field a man, that you should lay siege to it?
20 Only the trees you know do not bear food may you destroy and cut down, to build siege works against the city that is at war with you, until it falls.