rsv Deuteronomy:20:1-20 SEEK
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When you go forth 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 .
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And when you draw near to the battle ,
the priest shall come forward and speak to the people ,
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and shall say to them , `
Hear ,
O Israel ,
you draw near this day to battle against your enemies :
let not your heart faint ;
do not fear ,
or tremble ,
or be in dread of them ;
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for the LORD your God is he that goes with you ,
to fight for you against your enemies ,
to give you the victory .'
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Then the officers shall speak to the people ,
saying , `
What man is there that 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 .
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And what man is there that 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 .
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And what man is there that 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 .'
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And the officers shall speak further to the people ,
and say , '
What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted ?
Let him go back to his house ,
lest the heart of his fellows melt as his heart .'
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And when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people ,
then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people .
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When you draw near to a city to fight against it ,
offer terms of peace to it .
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And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you ,
then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you .
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But if it makes no peace with you ,
but makes war against you ,
then you shall besiege it ;
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and when the LORD your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword ,
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but the women and the little ones ,
the cattle ,
and everything else in the city ,
all its spoil ,
you shall take as booty for yourselves ;
and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies ,
which the LORD your God has given you .
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Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you ,
which are not cities of the nations here .
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But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance ,
you shall save alive nothing that breathes ,
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but you shall utterly destroy them ,
the Hittites and the Amorites ,
the Canaanites and the Per '
izzites ,
the Hivites and the Jeb '
usites ,
as the LORD your God has commanded ;
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that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices which they have done in the service of their gods ,
and so to sin against the LORD your God .
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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 ;
for you may eat of them ,
but you shall not cut them down .
Are the trees in the field men that they should be besieged by you ?
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Only the trees which 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 .