Deuteronomy
Chapter 20
Skip to reading
Choose chapter (20 selected)
Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
A dotted word is a harder one. Point at it, or tap it, for a short definition.
1When you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horse and chariot, a people more than you, you shall not fear them, for God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
2And it shall be, as you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall come forward and speak to the people.
3He shall say to them, Listen, Israel. You are drawing near today to battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart go soft. Do not fear, do not panic, and do not be shattered before them.
4For God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is the one who walks with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
5The officials shall speak to the people, saying, Who is the man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, or he might die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
6And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not made it ordinary? Let him go and return to his house, or he might die in the battle and another man make it ordinary.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Chillal is to make ordinary what had been held back from use.
7And who is the man who has pledged a woman and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, or he might die in the battle and another man take her.
8The officials shall speak further to the people and say, Who is the man who is afraid and soft of heart? Let him go and return to his house, so that he does not melt his brothers’ heart as his own heart.
9And it shall be, when the officials finish speaking to the people, that they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.
10When you draw near to a city to fight against it, you shall call to it for peace.
11And it shall be, if it answers you with peace and opens to you, then all the people found in it shall become forced labor for you and serve you.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Mas is forced labor.
12But if it will not make peace with you, and it makes war with you, you shall besiege it.
13God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God will give it into your hand, and you shall strike every male in it with the mouth of the sword.
14Only the women, the little ones, the animals, and all that is in the city, all its plunder, you shall take as plunder for yourself. You shall eat the plunder of your enemies, which God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God has given you.
15So you shall do to all the cities very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16Only from the cities of these peoples that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not let any breath live.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Neshamah is breath.
17For you shall devote them, devote them: the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God has commanded you,
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Hacharem tacharimem is devote them, devote them, the cherem set apart for destruction.
18so that they do not teach you to do according to all their abominations that they have done for their gods, and you offend against God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God.
19When you besiege a city for many days, to fight against it and to seize it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them, for you eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For the human is the tree of the field, to come from before you in the siege.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
The line has no question word. It is printed as a statement, in the written order: the human is the tree of the field. Readers have also taken it as a question, whether the tree of the field is a human that could come against you in the siege. No copy splits the words another way.
20Only a tree that you know is not a tree for food, that one you may destroy and cut down, and you shall build a siege-work against the city that is making war with you, until it falls.