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

2 And it will be, when you{+} draw near to the battle, that the priest will approach and speak to the people,

3 and will say to them, Hear, O Israel, you{+} draw near this day to battle against your{+} enemies: don't let your{+} heart faint; don't fear, nor tremble, neither be{+} afraid of them;

4 for Yahweh your{+} God is he who goes with you{+}, to fight for you{+} against your{+} enemies, to save you{+}.

5 And the officers will speak to the people, saying, What man is there that has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, or else if he dies in the battle, another will man dedicate it.

6 And what man is there that has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, or else if he dies in the battle, another man will use its fruit.

7 And what man is there that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, or else if he dies in the battle, another man will take her.

8 And the officers will speak further to the people, and they will say, What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brothers' heart melt as his heart.

9 And it will be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they will appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people.

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

11 And it will be, if it answers peace to you, and opens to you, then it will be, that all the people who are found in it will become slave labor to you, and will serve you.

12 And if it will not make peace with you, but will make war against you, then you will besiege it:

13 and when Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you will strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:

14 but the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all its spoil, you will take for a prey to yourself; and you will eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you.

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

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

17 but you will completely destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Yahweh your God has commanded you;

18 that they don't teach you{+} to follow all their disgusting behaviors, which they have done to their gods; so you{+} would sin against Yahweh your{+} God.

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

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