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Laws
of Warfare |
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| Deuteronomy 20:1 |
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"When you go out to battle against your enemies
and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid
of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is
with you. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:2 |
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When you are approaching the battle, the priest
shall come near and speak to the people. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:3 |
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He shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, you are
approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do
not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, |
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| Deuteronomy 20:4 |
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for the LORD your God is the one who goes with
you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.' |
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| Deuteronomy 20:5 |
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The officers also shall speak to the people,
saying, 'Who is the man that has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let
him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another
man would dedicate it. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:6 |
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Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and
has not begun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise
he might die in the battle and another man would begin to use its fruit. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:7 |
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And who is the man that is engaged to a woman
and has not married her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he
might die in the battle and another man would marry her.' |
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| Deuteronomy 20:8 |
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Then the officers shall speak further to the
people and say, 'Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart
and return to his house, so that he might not make his brothers' hearts melt like
his heart.' |
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| Deuteronomy 20:9 |
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When the officers have finished speaking to
the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:10 |
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"When you approach a city to fight against
it, you shall offer it terms of peace. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:11 |
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If it agrees to make peace with you and opens
to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor
and shall serve you. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:12 |
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However, if it does not make peace with you,
but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:13 |
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When the LORD your God gives it into your hand,
you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:14 |
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Only the women and the children and the animals
and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself;
and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given
you. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:15 |
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Thus you shall do to all the cities that are
very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:16 |
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Only in the cities of these peoples that the
LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything
that breathes. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:17 |
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But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite
and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite,
as the LORD your God has commanded you, |
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| Deuteronomy 20:18 |
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so that they may not teach you to do according
to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you
would sin against the LORD your God. |
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| Deuteronomy 20:19 |
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"When you besiege a city a long time, to make
war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging
an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down.
For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you? |
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| Deuteronomy 20:20 |
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Only the trees which you know are not fruit
trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against
the city that is making war with you until it falls. |
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