Atlas Biblica

    Deuteronomy · 20 verses

    Deuteronomy 20

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    A city can accept an offer of peace and become a workforce; the offer has a rather unexpected second clause.

    Before the battlevv. 1–9

    The priest steadies Israel before the sight of superior horses, chariots, and armies, while the officers conduct a wonderfully practical inventory of unfinished life. A new house, an unharvested vineyard, or an unconsummated engagement may send a man home; so may fear, lest one melting heart melt the hearts of his brothers. Only then are commanders appointed.

    Peace, siege, and the citiesvv. 10–18

    At a city’s approach, peace is offered; acceptance means that all its people become forced laborers. Refusal brings siege, and, once the city is delivered, its males are put to the sword while women, children, livestock, and the rest become spoil. The cities of the nations being given as an inheritance receive no such arrangement: nothing that breathes is to remain alive, lest their practices teach Israel to sin against the LORD.

    The trees are not besieging anyonevv. 19–20

    In the middle of all this siege work, the trees receive a distinction. Fruit trees are to be spared because their fruit can be eaten, and the text pauses to ask whether the trees of the field are human. Trees known not to produce fruit may be cut down for the siege works until the city falls.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Deut 20:1When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

    2. Deut 20:2When you are about to go into battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army,

    3. Deut 20:3saying to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be alarmed or terrified because of them.

    4. Deut 20:4For the LORD your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

    5. Deut 20:5Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it.

    6. Deut 20:6Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit.

    7. Deut 20:7Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.”

    8. Deut 20:8Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.”

    9. Deut 20:9When the officers have finished addressing the army, they are to appoint commanders to lead it.

    10. Deut 20:10When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace.

    11. Deut 20:11If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you.

    12. Deut 20:12But if they refuse to make peace with you and wage war against you, lay siege to that city.

    13. Deut 20:13When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword.

    14. Deut 20:14But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you.

    15. Deut 20:15This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

    16. Deut 20:16However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.

    17. Deut 20:17For you must devote them to complete destruction—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you,

    18. Deut 20:18so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.

    19. Deut 20:19When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them?

    20. Deut 20:20But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 174 passages were voted onto 17 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 4Exodus 14:14The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
    • 12 Chronicles 32:7–8“Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater One with us than with him.
    • 1Deuteronomy 31:8The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”
    • 1Psalms 20:7Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
    • 1Deuteronomy 31:6Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
    • 1Isaiah 43:2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze.
    • 1Romans 8:31What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
    • 4Deuteronomy 3:22Do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God Himself will fight for you.”
    • 4Deuteronomy 1:30The LORD your God, who goes before you, will fight for you, just as you saw Him do for you in Egypt
    • 4Joshua 23:10One of you can put a thousand to flight, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as He promised.
    • 1Joshua 1:5No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
    • 4Deuteronomy 11:25No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.
    • 1Isaiah 31:1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.
    • 4Romans 8:37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
    • 1Psalms 118:6The LORD is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
    • 4Psalms 144:1–2Of David. Blessed be the LORD, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

    Onward

    Keep reading

    Next chapterDeuteronomy 2123 verses.Named hereCanaanEverything the graph connects to this name.BookDeuteronomyAll 34 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.