Deuteronomy 20:15-20
utterly annihilate them <02763> [thou shalt.]
Hittites <02850> [the Hittites.]
chop down .............. cut ... down <07843 03772> [thou shalt not.]
trees ................ tree <06086> [for the tree, etc. or, for, O man, the tree of the field is to be employed in the siege.]
The original is exceedingly difficult. The LXX. has it, "Is the tree in the field a man, to enter the trench before thee?" The Latin Vulgate: "For it is a tree, and not a man, neither can it increase the number of those who war against thee;" Onkelos, "For the tree of the field is not as a man, that it should come against thee in the siege;" and to the same purpose the Arabic, Philo, and Josephus who say, "If trees could speak, they would cry out, that it is unjust that they, who were no cause of the war, should suffer the miseries of it." However rendered, the sense is sufficiently clear: and it is a merciful provision to spare all the fruit trees for the support of both the besieged and besiegers.
<0935> [to employ, etc. Heb. to go from before thee.]
build <01129> [thou shalt build.]
falls <03381> [be subdued. Heb. come down.]
