Laws of Warfare
When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horse and chariot, a people more numerous than you — you shall not fear them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
And it shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall come forward and speak to the people,
and say to them: “Hear, Israel: you are drawing near today to battle against your enemies. Let not your heart be faint. Do not fear, and do not panic, and do not be terrified before them.
For the LORD your God is the one going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
And the officers 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, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not begun to enjoy it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy it.
And who is the man who has betrothed a woman and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.”
And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say: “Who is the man who is afraid and faint of heart? Let him go and return to his house, so that he does not melt the heart of his brothers like his own heart.”
And it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that commanders of hosts shall be appointed at the head of the people.
When you draw near to a city to fight against it, you shall call out to it for peace.
And it shall be, if it answers you with peace and opens to you, that all the people found in it shall be yours for forced labor, and shall serve you.
But if it does not make peace with you, and makes war with you, then you shall besiege it.
And the LORD your God will give it into your hand; and you shall strike down every male in it with the edge of the sword.
Only the women, and the little ones, and the beasts, and all that is in the city — all its spoil — you may plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you.
So you shall do to all the cities very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
Only from the cities of these peoples, which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes live.
For you shall surely devote them to destruction — the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite — as the LORD your God has commanded you,
so that they do not teach you to do according to all their abominations that they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.
When you besiege a city many days, fighting against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them — for from them you may eat, and them you shall not cut down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should come under siege before you?
Only a tree that you know is not a tree for food — that one you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you, until it falls.