Deuteronomy 20
Big idea: The war laws are startling for what they send home. Before a battle, the priest tells the army not to be afraid because Yahweh goes with them — and then the officers dismiss anyone who has built a house and not dedicated it, planted a vineyard and not eaten from it, or betrothed a wife and not taken her. And then, remarkably, anyone who is simply afraid: let him go and return to his house, lest his brother's heart melt as his heart. An army assembled this way is not built for maximum force. Distant cities must be offered peace first. And in a passage that has puzzled and moved readers for millennia, the fruit trees around a besieged city are protected: you shall not cut them down — for is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?
Chapter 20 ends by sparing the trees around a besieged city. Chapter 21 opens with a killing nobody can solve, and the elders who must answer for it.
20:1–9 — Let him go and return to his house
The most humane conscription law in the ancient world, and its exemptions are all about unfinished life: a new house not yet lived in, a vineyard not yet eaten from, a marriage not yet begun. Each is released so that ANOTHER MAN does not enjoy what he built. And then a fourth exemption with no dignity attached at all — the frightened may simply go home, and the reason given is contagion.
1 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. 2 It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, 3 and shall tell them, “Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint! Don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them; 4 for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” 5 The officers shall speak to the people, saying, “What man is there 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. 6 What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. 7 What man is there who has pledged to be married to a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.” 8 The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.” 9 It shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.
20:10–20 — Is the tree of the field a man?
Two categories of war, held apart deliberately: distant cities are offered peace first and, if they accept, are not destroyed at all; the Canaanite cities are not. The reason given for the difference is stated in verse 18 and it is religious rather than ethnic. And then the chapter ends on trees, with a question no other ancient war code asks.
10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. 11 It shall be, if it gives you answer of peace and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you, and shall serve you. 12 If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 When Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword; 14 but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its plunder, you shall take for plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16 But of the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; 17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you; 18 that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done for their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God. 19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down, for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down. You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).