Deuteronomy 20:10-18

Laws Concerning Warfare

¹⁰ "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, _p offer terms of peace to it. ¹¹ And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. ¹² But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, _q you shall put all its males to the sword, ¹⁴ _r but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you _s shall take as plunder for yourselves. And _t you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. ¹⁶ But _u in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, ¹⁷ but _v you shall devote them to complete destruction, ₁ the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, ¹⁸ that _w they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you _x sin against the Lord your God.

1. Cross References
   Judges 21:13
   Then the whole congregation sent word to the people of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon and proclaimed peace to them.
   Deuteronomy 2:26
   So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying.
   2 Samuel 20:18
   Then she said, "They used to say in former times, 'Let them but ask counsel at Abel,' and so they settled a matter.
   2 Samuel 20:20
   Joab answered, "Far be it from me, far be it, that I should swallow up or destroy!
   
2. Cross References
   Numbers 31:7
   They warred against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every male.
   
3. Cross References
   Numbers 31:9
   And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods.
   
4. Cross References
   Joshua 8:2
   And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.
   
5. Cross References
   Joshua 22:8
   He said to them, "Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.
   
6. Cross References
   Deuteronomy 7:1 - 2
   When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves.
   Numbers 33:52
   Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.
   Joshua 11:14
   And all the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the people of Israel took for their plunder. But every man they struck with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any who breathed.
   
7. Cross References
   Deuteronomy 7:2
   And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
   
8. Cross References
   Deuteronomy 7:4
   For they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
   Deuteronomy 12:30 - 31
   Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? - that I also may do the same.
   Deuteronomy 18:9
   When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.
   
9. Cross References
   Exodus 23:33
   They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.