| NET Bible | International Standard Version |
| 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. | 1"When you go to war against your enemies and observe more horses, chariots, and soldiers than you have, don't be afraid of them, for the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt is with you. |
| 2As you move forward for battle, the priest will approach and say to the soldiers, | 2As you draw near for battle, let the priest approach and speak to the army. |
| 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, | 3He will say to them, 'Listen, Israel! You're about to go into battle today against your enemies. Don't be faint-hearted. Don't be afraid, don't panic, and don't be terrified to face them. |
| 4for the LORD your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory." | 4For the LORD your God will be with you, fighting on your behalf against your enemies in order to grant you victory.' |
| 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. | 5"Furthermore, let the officials ask the army, 'Is there a man here who has built a new house but has not yet dedicated it? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. |
| 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. | 6And is there a man here who has planted a vineyard and not yet benefited from it? Let him go home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man use it. |
| 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." | 7And is there a man here who is engaged to a woman and has not yet married her? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man marry her.' |
| 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." | 8"Let the officials also speak to the army, 'Is there a man here who is afraid and faint-hearted? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may demoralize his fellow soldier.' |
| 9Then, when the officers have finished speaking, they must appoint unit commanders to lead the troops. | 9"When the officials have finished speaking to the army, they must appoint officers to lead the troops." |
| 10When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. | 10"When you approach a city to wage war against it, extend terms of peace. |
| 11If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. | 11If it agrees to peace and welcomes you, then all the people found in it will serve you as forced laborers. |
| 12If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. | 12But if they refuse to make peace with you and instead choose war, then attack it. |
| 13The LORD your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword. | 13The LORD your God will deliver it into your control, and you must execute every male. |
| 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. | 14The women, children, all the livestock in the city, and all of the spoil and plunder will belong to you. Appropriate the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God will give you. |
| 15This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations. | 15Do this to all the cities that are distant from you—that is, to those cities that are not in neighboring nations." |
| 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. | 16"You are not to leave even one person alive in the cities of these nations that the LORD your God is about to give you as an inheritance. |
| 17Instead you must utterly annihilate them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites--just as the LORD your God has commanded you, | 17You must completely destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, just as the LORD your God commanded you, |
| 18so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the LORD your God. | 18so they won't teach you to do all the detestable things that they do for their gods. If you do what they teach you, you will sin against the LORD your God." |
| 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! | 19"When you attack a city and have to fight against it for many days, don't destroy its trees by cutting them down with an ax. You may eat from them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, that you would come and attack them? |
| 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. | 20However, you may cut down the trees whose fruit you know isn't edible, in order to build siege works against the city that waged war with you, until it falls." |
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