Deuteronomy 20:13

13 "When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, 1you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword.

Deuteronomy 20:13 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 20:13

And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands,
&c.] When, what with pressures without, and calamities within, the city is obliged to surrender: this is not to be imputed to the methods and arts of war used in besieging, or to the courage and skill of the besiegers; but to the power and providence of God succeeding means used, and sending famine or pestilence among the besieged, and inclining their hearts to deliver up their city:

thou shall smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword;
the men in it, grown persons, as distinguished from little ones in the next verse; because it was owing to these it was not surrendered at once, when terms of peace were offered.

Deuteronomy 20:13 In-Context

11 "If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you.
12 "However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
13 "When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword.
14 "Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall use 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 of the cities of these nations nearby.

Cross References 1

Footnotes 1

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