Deuteronomii 20

1 Si exieris ad bellum contra hostes tuos, et videris equitatus et currus, et majorem quam tu habeas adversarii exercitus multitudinem, non timebis eos: quia Dominus Deus tuus tecum est, qui eduxit te de terra Ægypti.

And if you should go forth to war against your enemies, and should see horse, and rider, and a people more numerous than yourself; you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God [is] with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

2 Appropinquante autem jam prælio, stabit sacerdos ante aciem, et sic loquetur ad populum:

And it shall come to pass whenever you shall draw near to battle, that the priest shall draw near and speak to the people, and shall say to them,

3 Audi, Israël: vos hodie contra inimicos vestros pugnam committitis: non pertimescat cor vestrum, nolite metuere, nolite cedere, nec formidetis eos:

Hear, O Israel; you are going this day to battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint, fear not, neither be confounded, neither turn aside from their face.

4 quia Dominus Deus vester in medio vestri est, et pro vobis contra adversarios dimicabit, ut eruat vos de periculo.

For [it is] the Lord your God who advances with you, to fight with you against your enemies, [and] to save you.

5 Duces quoque per singulas turmas audiente exercitu proclamabunt: Quis est homo qui ædificavit domum novam, et non dedicavit eam? vadat, et revertatur in domum suam, ne forte moriatur in bello, et alius dedicet eam.

And the scribes shall speak to the people, saying, What man [is] he that has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war, and another man dedicate it.

6 Quis est homo qui plantavit vineam, et necdum fecit eam esse communem, de qua vesci omnibus liceat? vadat, et revertatur in domum suam, ne forte moriatur in bello, et alius homo ejus fungatur officio.

And what man [is] he that has planted a vineyard, and not been made merry with it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man be made merry with it.

7 Quis est homo, qui despondit uxorem, et non accepit eam? vadat, et revertatur in domum suam, ne forte moriatur in bello, et alius homo accipiat eam.

And what man [is] he that has betrothed 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 His dictis addent reliqua, et loquentur ad populum: Quis est homo formidolosus, et corde pavido? vadat, et revertatur in domum suam, ne pavere faciat corda fratrum suorum, sicut ipse timore perterritus est.

And the scribes shall speak further to the people, and say, What man [is] he that fears and is cowardly in his heart? Let him go and return to his house, lest he make the heart of his brother fail, as his own.

9 Cumque siluerint duces exercitus, et finem loquendi fecerint, unusquisque suos ad bellandum cuneos præparabit.

And it shall come to pass when the scribes shall have ceased speaking to the people, that they shall appoint generals of the army to be leaders of the people.

10 Siquando accesseris ad expugnandam civitatem, offeres ei primum pacem.

And if you shall draw near to a city to overcome them by war, then call them out peaceably.

11 Si receperit, et aperuerit tibi portas, cunctus populus, qui in ea est, salvabitur, et serviet tibi sub tributo.

If then they should answer peaceably to you, and open to you, it shall be that all the people found in it shall be tributary and subject to you.

12 Sin autem fœdus inire noluerit, et cœperit contra te bellum, oppugnabis eam.

But if they will not listen to you, but wage war against you, you shall invest it;

13 Cumque tradiderit Dominus Deus tuus illam in manu tua, percuties omne quod in ea generis masculini est, in ore gladii,

until the Lord your God shall deliver it into your hands, and you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:

14 absque mulieribus et infantibus, jumentis et ceteris quæ in civitate sunt. Omnem prædam exercitui divides, et comedes de spoliis hostium tuorum, quæ Dominus Deus tuus dederit tibi.

except the women and the stuff: and all the cattle, and whatever shall be in the city, and all the plunder you shall take as spoil for yourself, and shall eat all the plunder of your enemies whom the Lord your God gives you.

15 Sic facies cunctis civitatibus, quæ a te procul valde sunt, et non sunt de his urbibus, quas in possessionem accepturus es.

Thus shall you do to all the cities that are very far off from you, not [being] of the cities of these nations which the Lord your God gives you to inherit their land.

16 De his autem civitatibus, quæ dabuntur tibi, nullum omnino permittes vivere:

[Of these] you shall not take any thing alive;

17 sed interficies in ore gladii, Hethæum videlicet, et Amorrhæum, et Chananæum, Pherezæum, et Hevæum, et Jebusæum, sicut præcepit tibi Dominus Deus tuus:

but you shall surely curse them, the Chettite, and the Amorite, and the Chananite, and the Pherezite, and the Evite, and the Jebusite, and the Gergesite; as the Lord your God commanded you:

18 ne forte doceant vos facere cunctas abominationes, quas ipsi operati sunt diis suis, et peccetis in Dominum Deum vestrum.

that they may not teach you to do all their abominations, which they did to their gods, and [so] you should sin before the Lord your God.

19 Quando obsederis civitatem multo tempore, et munitionibus circumdederis ut expugnes eam, non succides arbores, de quibus vesci potest, nec securibus per circuitum debes vastare regionem: quoniam lignum est, et non homo, nec potest bellantium contra te augere numerum.

And if you should besiege a city many days to prevail against it by war to take it, you shall not destroy its trees, by applying an iron tool to them, but you shall eat of it, and shall not cut it down: Is the tree that is in the field a man, to enter before you into the work of the siege?

20 Si qua autem ligna non sunt pomifera, sed agrestia, et in ceteros apta usus, succide, et instrue machinas, donec capias civitatem, quæ contra te dimicat.

But the tree which you know to be not fruit-bearing, this you shall destroy and cut down; and you shall construct a mound against the city, which makes war against you, until it be delivered up.