¹When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots, a people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

²And it will be, when you approach the battle, that the priest will come near and speak to the people.

³and he will say to them: Hear, Israel! You are drawing near to battle today against your enemies. Do not let your heart grow weak; do not be afraid, do not hurry off in alarm, and do not tremble before their faces.

⁴for Yahweh your God is the one going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

⁵And the officers will speak to the people, saying: Who is the man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

⁶And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not put it to common use? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man put it to common use.

⁷And who is the man who has betrothed a woman and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.

⁸And the officers will speak again to the people and say: Who is the man who is fearful and weak of heart? Let him go and return to his house, so that the heart of his brothers will not melt like his heart.

⁹And it will be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they will appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰When you approach a city to fight against it, you will proclaim wholeness to it.

¹¹And it will be, if it answers you with wholeness and opens to you, then all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you, and they will serve you.

¹²But if it will not be friendly with you but will make war with you, then you will lay siege to it.

¹³And Yahweh your God will give it into your hand, and you will strike down every male in it by the mouth of the sword.

¹⁴Only the women and the children and the livestock, and everything that is in the city, all its plunder you will plunder for yourself; and you will eat the plunder of your enemies which Yahweh your God has given you.

¹⁵So you will do to all the cities that are very far from you, those that are not from the cities of these nations.

¹⁶Only from the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, you will not let anything with breath live.

¹⁷Surely you will utterly devote them to destruction: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, just as Yahweh your God commanded you.

¹⁸so that they may not teach you to do just like all their abominations that they have done for their gods, and you sin against Yahweh your God.

¹⁹When you lay siege to a city for many days, fighting against it to capture it, you will not ruin its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you will eat from it, and you will not cut it down. Is the tree of the field a human being, to come before you in the siege?

²⁰Only a tree that you know is not a tree of food, that one you may ruin and cut down; and you will build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you, until it falls.