| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1“When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. | 1When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry and troops who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. |
| 2And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people | 2As you move forward for battle, the priest will approach and say to the soldiers, |
| 3and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, | 3"Listen, Israel! Today you are moving forward to do battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted. Do not fear and tremble or be terrified because of them, |
| 4for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ | 4for the LORD your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory." |
| 5Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. | 5Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, "Who among you has built a new house and not dedicated it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else dedicate it. |
| 6And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. | 6Or who among you has planted a vineyard and not benefited from it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else benefit from it. |
| 7And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ | 7Or who among you has become engaged to a woman but has not married her? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else marry her." |
| 8And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ | 8In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, "Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier's heart as fearful as his own." |
| 9And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people. | 9Then, when the officers have finished speaking, they must appoint unit commanders to lead the troops. |
| 10“When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. | 10When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. |
| 11And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. | 11If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. |
| 12But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. | 12If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. |
| 13And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, | 13The LORD your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword. |
| 14but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. | 14However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city--all its plunder--you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the LORD your God has given you. |
| 15Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. | 15This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations. |
| 16But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, | 16As for the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive. |
| 17but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, | 17Instead you must utterly annihilate them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites--just as the LORD your God has commanded you, |
| 18that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God. | 18so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the LORD your God. |
| 19“When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? | 19If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, you must not chop down its trees, for you may eat fruit from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! |
| 20Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls. | 20However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, and you may use it to build siege works against the city that is making war with you until that city falls. |
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