Deuteronomy 20
Deuteronomy 20:1 “When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, because Yahveh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.
Deuteronomy 20:2 When you are about to engage in battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army.
Deuteronomy 20:3 He is to say to them: ‘Listen, Israel: Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be cowardly. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them.
Deuteronomy 20:4 You see, Yahveh, your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’
Deuteronomy 20:5 “The officers are to address the army, and this is what you should say: ‘Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him leave and return home. Or else, he may die in battle, and another man dedicates it.
Deuteronomy 20:6 Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him leave and return home. Or else he may die in battle, and another man enjoys its fruit.
Deuteronomy 20:7 Has any man become engaged to a woman and not married her? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise, he may die in battle, and another man marries her.’
Deuteronomy 20:8 The officers will address the army again and say, ‘Is there any man who is afraid or cowardly? Let him leave and return home so that his brothers won’t lose heart as he did.’
Deuteronomy 20:9 When the officers have finished addressing the army, they will appoint military commanders to lead it.
Deuteronomy 20:10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, make an offer of peace.
Deuteronomy 20:11 If it answers your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you.
Deuteronomy 20:12 However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it.
Deuteronomy 20:13 When Yahveh, your God, hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword.
Deuteronomy 20:14 But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city– all its spoil– as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that Yahveh, your God, has given you.
Deuteronomy 20:15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations.
Deuteronomy 20:16 However, you must not let any breathing[1] thing stay alive among the cities of these people Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Deuteronomy 20:17 You must destroy them — the Hethite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite – as Yahveh your God has commanded you,
Deuteronomy 20:18 so that they won’t teach you to do all the repulsive acts they do for their gods, and you fail Yahveh, your God.
Deuteronomy 20:19 “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. Do not fell them. Are trees of the field human to come under siege by you?
Deuteronomy 20:20 But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce food. You may fell them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.
[1]נְשָׁמָה
Deuteronomy 20 quotes:
“It was just as consistent with the character of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to fight against His enemies, as it is with tlie character of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to forgive them. And inasmuch as it is the revealed character of God that furnishes the model on which His people are to be formed — llie standard by which thej’ are to act, it was quite as consistent for Israel to cut their enemies in pieces as it is for us to love them, pray for them, and do them good.”
Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. Loizeaux Bros 1880. p. 316.
“When the Israelites engaged in battle, the greater numbers and superior military equipment (horses and chariots—the Israelite army would consist of infantrymen) of their enemies need cause them no anxiety. Israelite strength lay not in numbers, not in the superiority of their weapons, but in their God.3 The strength of their God was not simply a matter of faith, but a matter of experience; in the Exodus from Egypt, God (the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt) had proved his strength and prowess in war against the strongest enemy that Israel had known.”
Craigie, Peter C.. The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (p. 271). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
Deuteronomy 20 links:
confidence instead of fear
destroying the defiled
first seek peace
God’s remedy for defilement
in retrospect- wise warfare
leaving the fruitful trees
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, June 10, 2021
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