Deḇarim (Deuteronomy) 20

Deut 20:1 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and shall see
horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of
them, for יהוה your Elohim, who brought you up from the land of Mitsrayim,
is with you.
Deut 20:2 “And it shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest
shall come and speak to the people,
Deut 20:3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Yisra’ĕl: You are drawing near
today to battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not fear, or
tremble, or be afraid before them,
Deut 20:4 for יהוה your Elohim is He who goes with you, to fight for you
against your enemies, to save you.’
Deut 20:5 “And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the
man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and
return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
Deut 20:6 ‘And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not
begun to use it? Let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in the
battle and another man should begin to use it.
Deut 20:7 ‘And who is the man who is engaged to a woman and has not
taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and
another man take her.’
Deut 20:8 “And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Who
is the man who is afraid and tender of heart? Let him go and return to his
house, lest the heart of his brothers faint like his heart.’
Deut 20:9 “And it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the
people, that they shall appoint commanders of the divisions to lead the
people.
Deut 20:10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then you shall
make a call for peace to it.
Deut 20:11 “And it shall be that if it accepts your call for peace, and shall
open to you, then all the people found in it are to be your compulsory labour,
and serve you.
Deut 20:12 “But if it does not make peace with you, and shall fight against
you, then you shall besiege it,
Deut 20:13 and יהוה your Elohim shall give it into your hands, and you shall
smite every male in it with the edge of the sword.
Deut 20:14 “Only the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all
that is in the city, all its spoil, you take as plunder for yourself. And you shall
eat the enemies’ plunder which יהוה your Elohim gives you.
Deut 20:15 “Do so to all the cities which are very far from you, which are
not of the cities of these nations.
Deut 20:16 “Only, of the cities of these peoples which יהוה your Elohim
gives you as an inheritance, you do not keep alive any that breathe,
Deut 20:17 but you shall certainly put them under the ban: the Ḥittite and the
Amorite and the Kena‛anite and the Perizzite and the Ḥiwwite and the
Yeḇusite, as יהוה your Elohim has commanded you,
Deut 20:18 lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations
which they have done for their mighty ones, and you sin against יהוה your
Elohim.
Deut 20:19 “When you besiege a city for a long time by fighting against it to
take it, you do not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. If you do
eat of them, do not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man to be
besieged by you?
Deut 20:20 “Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you do
destroy and cut down, to build siege-works against the city that is fighting
against you, until it falls.