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Deuteronomy 20:11
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9 And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
10 “When you go near a city to fight against it, athen proclaim an offer of peace to it.  
11 And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you.
12 Now if the city will not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
13 And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, ayou shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.  
14 But the women, the little ones, athe livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and byou shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the Lord your God gives you.  
15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 “But aof the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive,  
17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you,
18 lest athey teach you to do according to all their1 abominations which they have done for their gods, and you bsin against the Lord your God.  
19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man’s food.
20 Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.
Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
<< Deuteronomy 20:10   Deuteronomy 20:12 >>


Deuteronomy 20:10-20

When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it—An important principle is here introduced into the war law of Israel regarding the people they fought against and the cities they besieged. With "the cities of those people which God doth give thee" in Canaan, it was to be a war of utter extermination (Deuteronomy 20:17-18). But when on a just occasion, they went against other nations, they were first to make a proclamation of peace, which if allowed by a surrender, the people would become dependent [Deuteronomy 20:11], and in the relation of tributaries the conquered nations would receive the highest blessings from alliance with the chosen people; they would be brought to the knowledge of Israel's God and of Israel's worship, as well as a participation of Israel's privileges. But if the besieged city refused to capitulate and be taken, a universal massacre was to be made of the males while the women and children were to be preserved and kindly treated (Deuteronomy 20:13-14). By this means a provision was made for a friendly and useful connection being established between the captors and the captives; and Israel, even through her conquests, would prove a blessing to the nations.




Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Deuteronomy 20:11:

Deuteronomy 20:10-20
Judges 11:12-28
Isaiah 31:8

 

<< Deuteronomy 20:10   Deuteronomy 20:12 >>

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