Deuteronomy 20:10-20

Deuteronomy 20:10. SIEGES.

(10) When thou comest nigh... proclaim peace. — Not as the children of Dan did, who massacred the inhabitants of Laish without warning (Judges 18:27). Even in the wars of Joshua, the cities that “stood still in their strength” were generally spared (Joshua 11:13).

(15) Thus — i.e., sparing the women and the little ones.

(16-18) But of the cities of these people... thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth... that they teach you not to do after all their abominations. — Upon the inhabitants of these cities the Israelites executed the sentence of Jehovah. Their abominations are sufficiently indicated in Leviticus 18:24; Leviticus 20:23.

These verses (16-18) are parenthetical; Deuteronomy 20:19 returns to the previous subject.

(19) And thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life). — Literally, the passage seems rather to mean this, Is the tree of the field a man, that it should escape thee and enter into the siege? It will not run away and fight in the trenches as a man might do. What need is there to cut it down? This seems to be the view of the Targums, the LXX., and the Jewish commentators, besides modern authorities cited in the Variorum Bible. The destruction of the trees around Jerusalem was a notable feature of the Roman war.