---
title: Deuteronomy 20
slug: kjv/deuteronomy-20
createdAt: 2024-08-11T03:29:31.063Z
---

**1 **When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, *and* a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God *is* with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. **2 **And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, **3 **And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; **4 **For the LORD your God *is* he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. **5 **And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man *is there* that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. **6 **And what man *is he* that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not *yet* eaten of it? let him *also* go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. **7 **And what man *is there* that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. **8 **And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man *is there that is* fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. **9 **And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

**10 **When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. **11 **And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, *that* all the people *that is* found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. **12 **And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: **13 **And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof 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 the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. **15 **Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities *which are* very far off from thee, which *are* not of the cities of these nations. **16 **But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee *for* an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: **17 **But thou shalt utterly destroy them; *namely*, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: **18 **That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

**19 **When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field *is* man's *life*) to employ *them* in the siege: **20 **Only the trees which thou knowest that they *be* not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.