| Christian Standard Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1"When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you. | 1“When you go out to fight your enemies and you face horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid. The LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you! |
| 2When you are about to engage in battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army. | 2When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops. |
| 3He is to say to them: 'Listen, Israel: Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be cowardly. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them. | 3He will say to them, ‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! Do not lose heart or panic or tremble before them. |
| 4For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.' | 4For the LORD your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’ |
| 5"The officers are to address the army, 'Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. | 5“Then the officers of the army must address the troops and say, ‘Has anyone here just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, you may go home! You might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate your house. |
| 6Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit. | 6Has anyone here just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, you may go home! You might die in battle, and someone else would eat the first fruit. |
| 7Has any man become engaged to a woman and not married her? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man marry her.' | 7Has anyone here just become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? Well, you may go home and get married! You might die in the battle, and someone else would marry her.’ |
| 8The officers will continue to address the army and say, 'Is there any man who is afraid or cowardly? Let him leave and return home, so that his brothers won't lose heart as he did.' | 8“Then the officers will also say, ‘Is anyone here afraid or worried? If you are, you may go home before you frighten anyone else.’ |
| 9When the officers have finished addressing the army, they will appoint military commanders to lead it. | 9When the officers have finished speaking to their troops, they will appoint the unit commanders. |
| 10"When you approach a city to fight against it, make an offer of peace. | 10“As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace. |
| 11If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you. | 11If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. |
| 12However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it. | 12But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. |
| 13When the LORD your God hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword. | 13When the LORD your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town. |
| 14But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city--all its spoil--as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you. | 14But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the plunder from your enemies that the LORD your God has given you. |
| 15This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations. | 15“But these instructions apply only to distant towns, not to the towns of the nations in the land you will enter. |
| 16However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. | 16In those towns that the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. |
| 17You must completely destroy them--the Hethite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite--as the LORD your God has commanded you, | 17You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the LORD your God has commanded you. |
| 18so that they won't teach you to do all the detestable acts they do for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God. | 18This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the LORD your God. |
| 19"When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. Do not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you? | 19“When you are attacking a town and the war drags on, you must not cut down the trees with your axes. You may eat the fruit, but do not cut down the trees. Are the trees your enemies, that you should attack them? |
| 20But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce food. You may cut them down to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls. | 20You may only cut down trees that you know are not valuable for food. Use them to make the equipment you need to attack the enemy town until it falls. |
| The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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