¹When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses , chariots , and a people more numerous than you , you shall not be afraid of them ; for the LORD your God , who brought you up out of the land of Egypt , is with you .

²It shall be , when you draw near to the battle , that the priest shall approach and speak to the people ,

³and shall tell them , “Hear , Israel , you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint ! Don’t be afraid , nor tremble , neither be scared of them ;

⁴for the LORD your God is he who goes with you , to fight for you against your enemies, to save you .”

⁵The officers shall speak to the people , saying , “What man is there 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 .

⁶What man is there who has planted a vineyard , and has not used its fruit ? Let him go and return to his house , lest he die in the battle , and another man use its fruit .

⁷What man is there who has pledged to be married to a wife, and has not taken her ? Let him go and return to his house , lest he die in the battle , and another man take her .”

⁸The officers shall speak further to the people , and they shall say , “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house , lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart .”

⁹It shall be , when the officers have finished speaking to the people , that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people .

¹⁰When you draw near to a city to fight against it , then proclaim peace to it .

¹¹It shall be , if it gives you answer of peace and opens to you , then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you , and shall serve you .

¹²If it will make no peace with you , but will make war against you , then you shall besiege it .

¹³When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand , you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword ;

¹⁴but the women, the little ones , the livestock, and all that is in the city , even all its plunder , you shall take for plunder for yourself . You may use the plunder of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you .

¹⁵Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you , which are not of the cities of these nations .

¹⁶But of the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance , you shall save alive nothing that breathes ;

¹⁷but you shall utterly destroy them : the Hittite , the Amorite, the Canaanite , the Perizzite , the Hivite , and the Jebusite , as the LORD your God has commanded you ;

¹⁸that they not teach you to follow all their abominations , which they have done for their gods; so would you sin against the LORD your God .

¹⁹When you shall besiege a city a long time , in making war against it to take it , you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them ; for you may eat of them . You shall not cut them down , for is the tree of the field man , that it should be besieged by you ?

²⁰Only the trees that you know are not trees for food , you shall destroy and cut them down . You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you , until it falls .