20:1 When you go out to milchamah (battle) against your enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, [and] a people more than you, be not afraid of them: for Adonai Eloheicha [is] with you, which brought you up out of the land Mitzrayim.
20:2 And it shall be, when you are come nigh to the milchamah , that the kohen shall approach and speak to the people,
20:3 And shall say to them, Shema, Yisra'el, you approach this day to milchamah against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be you terrified because of them;
20:4 For Adonai Eloheichem [is] HE that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
20:5 And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man [is there] that has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the milchamah (battle), and another man dedicate it.
20:6 And what man [is he] that has planted a kerem (vineyard), and has not [yet] eaten of it? let him [also] go and return to his house, lest he die in the milchamah , and another man eat of it.
20:7 And what man [is there] that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the milchamah , and another man take her.
20:8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man [is there that is] fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return to his house, lest his brethren's lev faint as well as his lev.
20:9 And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
20:10 When you comes nigh to a city to fight against it, then proclaim shalom to it.
20:11 And it shall be, if it make you answer of shalom, and open to you, then it shall be, [that] all the people [that is] found therein shall be tributaries to you, and they shall serve you.
20:12 And if it will make no shalom with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:
20:13 And when Adonai Eloheicha has delivered it into your hands, you shall smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
20:14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, [even] all the spoil thereof, shall you take to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which Adonai Eloheicha has given you.
20:15 Thus shall you do to all the cities [which are] very far off from you, which [are] not of the cities of these nations.
20:16 But of the cities of these people, which Adonai Eloheicha does give you [for] an nachalah (inheritance), you shall save alive nothing that breaths:
20:17 But you shall utterly destroy them; [namely], the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Kenaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Yevusites; as Adonai Eloheicha has commanded you:
20:18 That they teach you not to do after all their to'avot (abominations), which they have done to their gods; so should you sin against Adonai Eloheichem.
20:19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down (for the tree of the field [is] man's [life]) to employ [them] in the siege:
20:20 Only the trees which you know that they [be] not trees for ma'akal (food), you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it be subdued.