Deuteronomychapter 20
20 verses · BSBDeuteronomy book hub →
Original Language
Deuteronomy 20— Hebrew word study · with the Hebrew tradition
In Jewish life
Jewish practice and Jewish teaching both have something to say about Deuteronomy 20. Three things follow: where it is read, what is done because of it, and how the rabbis have taught it. The purpose is to inform a Christian reader what Jews believe and how Judaism was and is practised.
The reading
Weekly portion 48 of 54
שֹׁפְטִים Shoftim, Deuteronomy 16:18 to 21:9
Read with it: Isaiah 51:12 to 52:12.
The verse numbers here are the ones a Hebrew Bible carries, which differ from an English Bible by a verse or two in several places. The Sephardi reading is named only where this site records a difference; communities vary beyond what is listed. What these books are, and how a Christian reader meets them →
Where the rabbis cite this chapter
4 rows sit beside their verses in the text, on 4 verses of this chapter. No row that speaks to the chapter as a whole is recorded. Every quote links to its full source.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria (sefaria.org); excerpts follow each version’s license, and every passage opens at its source.
How to read a word below: the Hebrewword, then how it sounds, then what it means, then its number in Strong’s concordance, a widely used lookup this site follows (H for Hebrew and Aramaic, G for Greek). Square brackets hold a word the English supplies that the Hebrew does not, angle brackets mark the Hebrew’s own grammatical elements that English renders as separate words, and the mark ס or פ is where the Hebrew manuscripts end a paragraph.
The priest speaks; the fearful go home1
Deuteronomy 20:1· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Ramban on Deuteronomy 20:1
WHEN THOU GOEST FORTH TO BATTLE AGAINST THINE ENEMIES, AND SEEST HORSES, AND CHARIOTS etc. This is a new commandment which he now declared to them as they came into battles.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976
Deuteronomy 20:2· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:3· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:4· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:5· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:6· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:7· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:8· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:9· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Offer terms of peace to a distant city10
Deuteronomy 20:10· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Onkelos Deuteronomy 20:10
When you near a city to do battle against it, you are to offer it [ words of ] peace.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 [with Onkelos translation]
Deuteronomy 20:11· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Ramban on Deuteronomy 20:11
“[Their surrender is not to be accepted] until they accept tribute and servitude upon themselves.” This is the language of Rabbeinu Shlomo [Rashi]. And in the Sifre the Rabbis have said: 340 Sifre, Shoftim.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976
Deuteronomy 20:12· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:13· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:14· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:14
והטף AND THE LITTLE ONES [… SHALT THOU TAKE UNTO THYSELF] — the male children, too. But how am I to understand (v. 13) “and thou shalt smite every male thereof”? As referring to the male adults (Sifrei Devarim:7).
Read it in full at Sefaria · Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934
Deuteronomy 20:15· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Nothing that breathes in these nations16
Deuteronomy 20:16· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:17· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:18· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Is the tree of the field a man?19
Deuteronomy 20:19· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Deuteronomy 20:20· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
