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Text -- Deuteronomy 20:2-20 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
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!
20:20 However , you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food , and you may use it to build siege works against the city that is making war with you until that city falls .
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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Names, People and Places:
Dictionary Themes and Topics:
Moses |
Siege |
DEUTERONOMY |
ARMY |
Armies |
War |
Soldiers |
WAR; WARFARE |
Priest |
CRITICISM |
Amorites |
BOOTY |
ACCURSED |
House |
WRITING, 2 |
Fort |
Fruit Trees |
Captive |
Horticulture |
Canaanites |
more
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Deu 20:2; Deu 20:2; Deu 20:4; Deu 20:5; Deu 20:5; Deu 20:5; Deu 20:5; Deu 20:7; Deu 20:8; Deu 20:8; Deu 20:9; Deu 20:9; Deu 20:11; Deu 20:11; Deu 20:13; Deu 20:16; Deu 20:16; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:17; Deu 20:18; Deu 20:19; Deu 20:19; Deu 20:19; Deu 20:19; Deu 20:20; Deu 20:20
NET Notes: Deu 20:2 Heb “and he will say to the people.” Cf. NIV, NCV, CEV “the army”; NRSV, NLT “the troops.”
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NET Notes: Deu 20:11 Heb “become as a vassal and will serve you.” The Hebrew term translated slaves (מַס, mas) refers either to Israelites wh...
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NET Notes: Deu 20:17 Jebusite. These people inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).
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