Deuteronomy 20:10-20

Deuteronomy 20:10-20

[10] When thou comest nigh  unto a city  to fight  against it, then proclaim  peace  [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  [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  them; namely, the Hittites,  and the Amorites,  the Canaanites,  and the Perizzites,  the Hivites,  and the Jebusites;  as the LORD  thy God  hath commanded  [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.