| New International Version | NET Bible |
| 1When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. | 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. |
| 2When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. | 2As you move forward for battle, the priest will approach and say to the soldiers, |
| 3He shall say: "Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. | 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, |
| 4For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." | 4for the LORD your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory." |
| 5The officers shall say to the army: "Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may begin to live in it. | 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. |
| 6Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy 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. |
| 7Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her." | 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." |
| 8Then the officers shall add, "Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too." | 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." |
| 9When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they shall appoint commanders over it. | 9Then, when the officers have finished speaking, they must appoint unit commanders to lead the troops. |
| 10When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. | 10When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. |
| 11If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. | 11If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. |
| 12If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. | 12If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. |
| 13When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. | 13The LORD your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword. |
| 14As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies. | 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. |
| 15This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. | 15This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations. |
| 16However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. | 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. |
| 17Completely destroy them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--as the LORD your God has commanded you. | 17Instead you must utterly annihilate them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites--just as the LORD your God has commanded you, |
| 18Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God. | 18so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the LORD your God. |
| 19When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them? | 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! |
| 20However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls. | 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. |
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