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Deuteronomy 20

Deuteronomy book home•Chapter 20 of 34•20 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Deuteronomy 20 Overview

Moses gives laws for Israel’s warfare. The people are told not to fear larger armies because the LORD who brought them out of Egypt goes with them. Certain men may return home before battle, distant cities may first receive an offer of peace, the Canaanite nations inside the inheritance are treated differently under the conquest ban, and fruit trees are protected during long sieges.

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Before you read Deuteronomy 20

Coming from

Chapter 19 established careful distinctions in civil justice—especially between accidental death and murder and between true and false testimony.

In this chapter

The same covenant order now governs war: courage, exemptions, differentiated treatment of cities, and limits on destruction.

Leads into

Chapter 21 addresses unresolved murder, captives, inheritance rights, a persistently rebellious son, and the treatment of an executed body.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Israel’s conquest war is neither unrestricted nor identical in every location. Cities far outside the specifically judged Canaanite inheritance are offered peace terms, while the nations named within Canaan fall under a distinct ban designed to prevent Israel from learning their abominations. The priest’s address before battle roots courage in God’s presence rather than military size. Even siege warfare has ecological restraint: productive fruit trees are not to be destroyed merely because they are available.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Israel’s confidence in battle is grounded in the LORD’s past deliverance, not numerical superiority.

Truth 2

The law distinguishes the unique judgment of Canaanite nations from warfare against more distant cities.

Truth 3

Military service recognizes ordinary human obligations and fear rather than treating every man identically.

Truth 4

War does not erase limits; wanton destruction of fruit-bearing resources is forbidden.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Joshua 6–11 narrates the later implementation of the conquest against Canaanite cities.

Connection 2

Genesis 15:16 supplies earlier theological background for the timing of judgment on the Amorites.

Connection 3

The New Testament gives the church spiritual weapons and a gospel mission rather than Joshua-style territorial conquest (2 Corinthians 10:3–5; Ephesians 6:10–18).

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not universalize Israel’s Canaanite ban into a standing command for Christians to destroy religious opponents.

Keep this clear 2

The peace terms for distant cities and the total ban for specified Canaanite nations must not be collapsed into one rule.

Keep this clear 3

The chapter does not glorify warfare as intrinsically holy; it regulates Israel’s specific covenant conflicts and limits destruction.

Read Deuteronomy 20 watching for…

The reason Israel is told not to fear larger armies.

The categories of men excused before battle.

The difference between distant cities and Canaanite cities.

The stated reason for removing Canaanite religious influence.

The protection given to fruit trees during siege.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-9Israel’s army is told not to fear and certain men are excused from battle 10-15Rules are given for offering peace to distant cities 16-18The nations within the promised inheritance are to be destroyed 19-20Fruit trees must not be destroyed during a siege

When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,

And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;

For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.

And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it.

And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.

And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart.

And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.

And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.

And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:

And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.

But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:

That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege:

Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.