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Texts -- Deuteronomy 20:1-19 (NET)

Context
Laws Concerning War with Distant Enemies
20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry and troops who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them , for the Lord your God , who brought you up out of the land of Egypt , is with you . 20:2 As you move forward for battle , the priest will approach and say to the soldiers , 20:3 “Listen , Israel ! Today you are moving forward to do battle with your enemies . Do not be fainthearted . Do not fear and tremble or be terrified because of them, 20:4 for the Lord your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory .” 20:5 Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops , “Who among you has built a new house and not dedicated it? He may go home , lest he die in battle and someone else dedicate it. 20:6 Or who among you has planted a vineyard and not benefited from it? He may go home , lest he die in battle and someone else benefit from it. 20:7 Or who among you has become engaged to a woman but has not married her? He may go home , lest he die in battle and someone else marry her.” 20:8 In addition , the officers are to say to the troops , “Who among you is afraid and fainthearted ? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier’s heart as fearful as his own .” 20:9 Then, when the officers have finished speaking , they must appoint unit commanders to lead the troops . 20:10 When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace . 20:11 If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves . 20:12 If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. 20:13 The Lord your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword . 20:14 However , the women , little children , cattle , and anything else in the city – all its plunder – you may take for yourselves as spoil . You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you. 20:15 This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations .
Laws Concerning War with Canaanite Nations
20:16 As for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance , you must not allow a single living thing to survive . 20:17 Instead you must utterly annihilate them– the Hittites , Amorites , Canaanites , Perizzites , Hivites , and Jebusites – just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 20:18 so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods , causing you to sin against the Lord your God . 20:19 If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, you must not chop down its trees , for you may eat fruit from them and should not cut them down . A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it!

Pericope

NET
  • Deu 20:1-15 -- Laws Concerning War with Distant Enemies
  • Deu 20:16-20 -- Laws Concerning War with Canaanite Nations

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • 14:1-4 Scholars have not been able to locate definitely the sites referred to in verse 2."An Egyptian papyrus associates Baal Zephon with Tahpahnes . . . a known site near Lake Menzaleh in the northeastern delta region."235Ho...
  • Let me share with you a couple of quotations that point out the importance of this book."Deuteronomy is one of the greatest books of the Old Testament. Its significance on the domestic and personal religion of all ages has no...
  • I. Introduction: the covenant setting 1:1-5II. Moses' first major address: a review of God's faithfulness 1:6-4:40A. God's past dealings with Israel 1:6-3:291. God's guidance from Sinai to Kadesh 1:6-462. The march from Kades...
  • This brief section places the events that follow in their geographical and chronological setting. It introduces the occasion for the covenant, the parties involved, and other information necessary to identify the document and...
  • ". . . Deuteronomy contains the most comprehensive body of laws in the Pentateuch. It is clearly intended to be consulted for guidance on many aspects of daily life, in sharp contrast with the laws of Leviticus, which are ver...
  • Another writer suggested that chapters 6-26 expand the Decalogue with the intent of addressing the spirit of the law.92He believed the structure of the book supports his contention that the writer chose exemplary cases. Moses...
  • "These clearly are not laws or commandments as such but primarily series of parenetic homilies in which Moses exhorted the people to certain courses of action in light of the upcoming conquest and occupation of Canaan. Within...
  • The section of Deuteronomy dealing with general stipulations of the covenant ends as it began, with an exhortation to covenant loyalty (5:1-5; cf. 4:32-40)."This chapter is to be understood as a re-emphasis of these principle...
  • Moses' homiletical exposition of the law of Israel that follows explains reasons for the covenant laws that arose from the Ten Commandments. This address concludes with directions for celebrating and confirming the covenant (...
  • The context of this section is significant as usual. Verses 1-8 deal with people who ministered to Yahweh in various ways for the people, and verses 15-22 concern the delivery of God's revelations to His people. Verses 9-14 c...
  • These instructions deal with how Israel was to come into possession of the Promised Land (cf. Num. 33:50-56). They are in the context of civil legislation because Israel did not have a standing army. Soldiers volunteered to g...
  • This section concludes the "purely legal material."284The ordinances with which Moses concluded his second address (chs. 5-26) not only specified the Israelites' actions in further respects but also focused their thinking on ...
  • "The presentation of the commandments and the statutes and ordinances that will guide Israel's life in the land is over now. Verse 16 serves as a concluding bracket around chapters 5-26, matching Moses' introduction to the wh...
  • "Moses assigned the priests and elders the duty of regularly republishing the law of the covenant. The effect of this was to associate the priests and elders with Joshua in the responsibility of rule and in the esteem of Isra...
  • As preparation for entering Canaan, Joshua sent spies to reconnoiter the area Israel would enter."Although Joshua had received a promise from the Lord of His almighty help in the conquest of Canaan, he still thought it necess...
  • 5:13-15 "Despite Joshua's long military experience he had never led an attack on a fortified city that was prepared for a long siege. In fact, of all the walled cities in Palestine, Jericho was probably the most invincible. T...
  • The residents of the town of Gibeon decided that if they could not defeat the Israelites they would join them. This has been a strategy that enemies of believers have employed for centuries (cf. Num. 25:1-2).9:1-2 Israel is t...
  • Presumably God willingly gave Gideon the signs of the fleece because He knew the command He would give him to reduce his army would stretch his faith to its limit. The Israelite soldiers numbered only 32,000 (or 32 units, v. ...
  • "In the short pericope 13:7b-15a obedience was the stone on which Saul stumbled; here it is the rock that crushes him."147Chapter 15 records one of the battles Saul had with the Amalekites, Israel's enemy to the south (cf. 14...
  • "With Joab's return to the king in Jerusalem, the grand symphony known as the Court History of David reaches its conclusion for all practical purposes (at least as far as the books of Samuel are concerned . . .). The last fou...
  • This section is similar to the one that recorded Saul's failure to follow Yahweh's command that also resulted in God cutting him off as His vice-regent (1 Sam. 13:13-14). The parallels between Saul and Ahab are remarkable thr...
  • Josiah began to seek Yahweh when he was 16 years old and began initiating religious reforms when he was 20 (2 Chron. 34:3-7). His reforms were more extensive than those of any of his predecessors. One of them was the repair o...
  • As was true in the chapter 10-15 section, this one (16:1-22:16) also becomes more difficult to outline as it ends because there are fewer groupings of proverbs.19:7 The first part of this verse is hyperbole (overstatement to ...
  • 5:14 Again the prophet urged the Israelites to seek good rather than evil so they could live (cf. vv. 4-6). Then the sovereign, almighty Yahweh would truly be with them, as they professed He was even as they practiced their i...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • Which swept away so much chaff. According to Deuteronomy 20:8, the standing enactment was that such a proclamation as that in verse 3 should precede every battle. Much difficulty has been raised about the mention of Mount Gil...
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