Deuteronomychapter 20
20 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
Moses gave this law on the plains of Moab with a campaign about to begin across the Jordan. Israel had no standing army, and the men who would fight were farmers called up from their own fields. Their enemies had horses and chariots, weapons Israel did not have and could not match on open ground. The chapter sets the terms of the war before it starts, who goes, what is offered to a city first and what may be cut down around it. Listen for who speaks to the troops before the battle, and for the reasons a man is sent home.
Context
- Who
- Farmers who were about to be soldiers
- What
- The terms of Israel's wars, from the priest's charge and the men sent home to the peace offered a distant city, the command against the cities of the land and the fruit trees spared.
- Where
- The plains of Moab, on the near side of the river the army would cross.
- When
- The fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date this site keeps.
- Why
- To make Israel trust the LORD rather than its numbers, and to set limits on how its army fought.
Historical context
The chapter is Moses speaking in the fortieth year, with a campaign about to begin. The house reading dates it to about 1406 BC, stated as a reading rather than a settled date. The place is the plains of Moab, on the near side of the river the army will cross. The occasion is the setting of terms for that war, covering who marches, what is offered to a city first, and what may be cut down around it. A first hearer knew Israel had no professional army. The force was every able-bodied man called up from his own fields, which is why the exemptions read as they do, and a newly planted vineyard takes years before its fruit may be used. A first hearer also knew that the priest addressed the troops rather than the general. The horses and chariots named at verse 1 were the weapons Israel did not have and could not match on open ground. The rule against felling fruit trees ran against standard practice, since Assyrian royal inscriptions boast of cutting down orchards and destroying groves as policy.
Significance
The distinction the chapter draws mattered to first hearers. Cities far off were offered terms of peace before any siege, and a city that accepted them served rather than died. The cities of the nations inside the land came under a different command, and the reason the chapter gives for it is the practices of those nations rather than their ancestry. The exemptions also told Israel what kind of army it was, since a man with a new wife and an unharvested vineyard was worth more at home than in the ranks.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The chapter describes an order of service before a battle. The classical sources set out who said what, and how loudly. A priest anointed for this one duty addressed the army, and the Talmud calls him the priest anointed for war (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:2:2, citing Sotah 42a). He spoke as the troops were on the point of leaving the boundary of the land (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:2:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 191).
Rashi divides the speech into parts. The priest proclaimed the opening call aloud, said the three exemptions quietly, and the officers repeated those aloud to the ranks. The last paragraph the officers spoke themselves (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:8:1, citing Sotah 43a). Guards were posted in front of the line and behind it. Other men stood in the wings to raise those who fell, warning them that "flight is the first step to defeat" (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:9:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 198 and Sotah 44).
How it is read
The exemptions are read closely. The man who has built a house and has not dedicated it is the man who has not yet lived in it (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:5:1). The man who has planted a vineyard and not eaten of it is the man who has not yet redeemed its fourth-year fruit (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:6:1). Rashi holds that the man sent home is sent home for his own sake, since a man who will not listen to the priests deserves what follows (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:7:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 194:5).
The two kinds of war are held apart. The offer of peace at 20:10 belongs to a war that is not obligatory, which the section marks by speaking of cities very far off (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:10:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 199:1). In such a city even people of the seven nations found there may be kept alive (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:11:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 200:2). On the command against the nations of Canaan the classical reading turns on the reason the text gives at 20:18. Rashi draws from it that if those nations repent of their practices and wish to become proselytes they may be accepted (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:18:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 202:1). A Christian reader meets that command as a difficulty, and this site argues the case in full at /featured/the-canaanite-conquest rather than here. Rashi also reads the siege law at 20:19 as setting a minimum of two days, from the plural of the word for days. Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 20:15:1 and 20:16:1 stands in the corpus without an English text and is cited without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis read the opening of the chapter against the court that closes the chapter before it. Rashi carries two teachings on the juxtaposition. A man lacking a limb does not go out to war. A people which executes just judgment may go to war expecting victory (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:1:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 190:17 and Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 15). On the call to hear he carries a striking measure of mercy. Israel would deserve help for the keeping of the recital of the Shema alone, with no other merit (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:3:1, citing Sotah 42a).
On the promise that God goes with them Rashi sets the two sides against each other. The enemy relies on human strength and Israel on the Omnipresent, and the Philistines relied on Goliath and fell with him (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:4:1, citing Sotah 42a). He reads the words about God going with them of the camp that carries the Ark (Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:4:2, citing Sotah 42a).
The corpus carries more locators on this chapter, given for a reader to follow. Jerusalem Talmud Horayot 3:2:33 and Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:10:8 stand across 20:1 to 20:9. Ein Yaakov, Sotah 8:1 stands at 20:2, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 8:2 at 20:3. Ein Yaakov, Sotah 8:6 stands at 20:4, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 8:7 at 20:5. Aggadat Bereshit 13:3 and Bereshit Rabbah 42:2 stand at 20:8, Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:2 at 20:9. Devarim Rabbah 4:7 stands at 20:12, and Bamidbar Rabbah 19:20 with Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4 at 20:17. Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:17 stands at 20:18. Bamidbar Rabbah 21:6 and Bava Batra 26a:11 stand at 20:19.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:1 to 20:20, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929-1934; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 20:15:1 and 20:16:1, cited without text; MannaFest, the Canaanite conquest, at /featured/the-canaanite-conquest, 2026; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/20.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The priest speaks; the fearful go home
Deuteronomy 20:1-4
Horses and chariots are named as the thing not to fear, and 17:16 forbids a king to gather them, so the same arms are denied to the throne and discounted in the field. The ground for courage is the God “who brought you out of the land of Egypt”. Jewish tradition called the priest of verse 2 the anointed of the war, and Matthew Henry takes up the name.
Deuteronomy 20:1
“Horses, and chariots - The most formidable elements of an Oriental host, which the Canaanites possessed in great numbers; compare Jos 17:16; Jdg 4:3; 1Sa 13:5. Israel could not match these with corresponding forces (compare Deu 17:16 note and references), but, having the God of battles on its side, was not to be dismayed by them; the assumption being that the war had the sanction of God, and was consequently just.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Deuteronomy 20:1
“This encouragement must be particularly addressed to the common soldiers by a priest appointed, and, the Jews say, anointed, for that purpose, whom they call the anointed of the war, a very proper title for our anointed Redeemer, the captain of our salvation: This priest, in God's name, was to animate the people; and who so fit to do that as he whose office it was as priest to pray for them?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke reads the priest as the representative of the God whose worship he conducted, and notes that almost all ancient nations took their priests with them to battle. Numbers 31:6 sends Phinehas the priest to the war with Midian, carrying the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets. The priest speaks before the officers do.
Deuteronomy 20:2
“The priest shall approach, and speak unto the people - The priest on these occasions was the representative of that God whose servant he was, and whose worship he conducted. It is remarkable that almost all ancient nations took their priests with them to battle, as they did not expect success without having the object of their adoration with them, and they supposed they secured his presence by having that of his representative.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The priest's words to the army name fear four ways, fainthearted, afraid, alarmed and terrified, against the horses and chariots of verse 1. Albert Barnes notes that the Canaanites had chariots in great numbers, citing Joshua 17:16 and Judges 4:3, where Jabin held nine hundred chariots of iron. Joshua 1:9 gives the same charge.
Deuteronomy 20:3
“There is need of precept upon precept to this purport, as there is here: Let not your hearts be tender (so the word is), to receive all the impressions of fear, but let a believing confidence in the power and promise of God harden them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Albert Barnes notes the assumption behind the promise, that the war had the sanction of God. Moses had given the same promise at 1:30, the LORD going before Israel to fight for them as he had in Egypt. At 1:42 the LORD withheld it from a war he had forbidden.
Deuteronomy 20:4
“For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you,.... To battle, and therefore they had no reason to fear and be dismayed, to be fainthearted, terrified, and tremble: fear not, I am with thee,....”
Deuteronomy 20:5-9
Three men go home over things unfinished, a house not dedicated, a vineyard not enjoyed and a bride not married, each “or he may die in battle” and another take it. The release guards a man's stake in the land, and Albert Barnes reads the one-year limit of 24:5 into this list. The fearful go home for the ranks' sake, and Judges 7:3 has Gideon send twenty-two thousand away.
Deuteronomy 20:5
“Again, the law in its humanity says that if a man has built a new house but has not yet moved in, or laid out a new vineyard but has not yet enjoyed the fruit, or become betrothed to a girl but has not yet married her, he is to be excused military service. This makes military sense, since we would be unenthusiastic in our military service if we were being pulled in the direction of the things we longed for. People expose themselves to danger without a second thought only if they are free in relation to natural impulses.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 2patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 20:5
“The officers dedicated it - See Exo 5:6 note. Compare the marginal references. The expression is appropriate, because various ceremonies of a religious kind were customary among the Jews on taking possession of a new house. The immunity conferred in this verse lasted, like that in Deu 20:7 (compare Deu 24:5), for one year.”
Deuteronomy 20:5
“And the officers shall speak unto the people--literally, Shoterim, who are called "scribes" or "overseers" (Ex 5:6). They might be keepers of the muster-roll, or perhaps rather military heralds, whose duty it was to announce the orders of the generals (2Ch 26:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John Gill points to the law of Leviticus 19:23 to 25, under which a new planting gave no fruit to eat until the fifth year. A man who planted a vineyard waited years for his first harvest, and the release keeps him from dying in battle before it. Paul asks the same at 1 Corinthians 9:7.
Adam Clarke explains the custom: a man pledged to a woman left her in her parents' house for some time, and the marriage was complete when he had prepared a home and brought her to it. A man killed in battle in that interval left the woman to another man. Matthew 1:18 finds Mary pledged to Joseph in the same state.
Deuteronomy 20:7
“Betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? - It was customary among the Jews to contract matrimony, espouse or betroth, and for some considerable time to leave the parties in the houses of their respective parents: when the bridegroom had made proper preparations, then the bride was brought home to his house, and thus the marriage was consummated.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke gives the Hebrew rach, tender or soft, for the fainthearted man. The fear of one man can make the hearts of his brothers melt, and 1:28 records exactly that, when the people complained that their brothers had made their hearts melt. Fear spreads through an army.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown identify these officers as the shoterim of Exodus 5:6, who kept the army's roll or announced its orders. 2 Chronicles 26:11 names such an officer in Uzziah's army. Commanders to lead the army into battle are appointed once the men sent home have gone.
Deuteronomy 20:9
“The meaning is that the “officers” should then subdivide the levies, and appoint leaders of the smaller divisions thus constituted.”
Offer terms of peace to a distant city
Deuteronomy 20:10-15
The order is peace first and siege second, and a city that accepts becomes forced labour, living under Israel rather than beside it. Verse 15 limits the paragraph to cities “that are far away from you”, and Adam Clarke reports that interpreters have long divided over how wide the offer runs. Moses had already done this at 2:26, sending words of peace to Sihon king of Heshbon.
Deuteronomy 20:10
“Proclaim peace unto it - Interpreters are greatly divided concerning the objects of this law. The text, taken in connection with the context, (see Deu 20:15-18), appears to state that this proclamation or offer of peace to a city is only to be understood of those cities which were situated beyond the limits of the seven anathematized nations, because these latter are commanded to be totally destroyed. Nothing can be clearer than this from the bare letter of the text, unless some of the words, taken separately, can be shown to have a different meaning.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew Henry reports the terms the Jewish writers attached. The city renounced idolatry, worshipped the God of Israel as proselytes of the gate, paid a yearly tribute and accepted Israel's rule. 1 Kings 9:21 records Solomon making forced laborers of the peoples left in the land.
John Gill reports the Jewish tradition that a besieging army closed only three sides of the city, leaving one open for any who chose to flee. The siege follows a refused offer of peace.
Deuteronomy 20:12
“And if it will make no peace with thee,.... Will not accept of terms of peace offered: but will make war against thee; come out and fight, or prepare to defend themselves: then thou shall besiege it; surround and block it up on all sides with their forces; the Jews say only on three sides, leaving one for any to flee and make their escape if they thought fit; See Gill on Num 31:7.”
The victory is credited to the LORD before any sentence is carried out. The sentence falls on the males alone, and Numbers 31:7 records every male killed in the war against Midian, fought as the LORD had commanded Moses. John Gill sends the reader to that chapter.
Deuteronomy 20:13
“We must be for peace, whoever are for war. If the offers of peace were not accepted, then they must proceed to push on the war. And let those to whom God offers peace know that if they reject the offer, and take not the benefit of it within the time limited, judgment will rejoice against mercy in the execution as much as now mercy rejoices against judgment in the reprieve.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew Henry notes that a city which accepted peace gained its conquerors as protectors, and a city that refused lost that protection. Its women, children and livestock became spoil, and the spoil is called the LORD's gift. Chapter 21:10 and 11 governs a captive wife.
Deuteronomy 20:14
“Note, A justifiable property is acquired in that which is won in lawful war. God himself owns the title: The Lord thy God gives it thee; and therefore he must be owned in it, Ps. xliv. The nations of Canaan are excepted from the merciful provisions made by this law.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke takes this verse as the key to the chapter: the offer of peace applied only to cities beyond the seven nations, which were to be destroyed. Joshua 9:6 turns on this very distinction, when the Gibeonites claim to have come from a distant land and ask for a treaty. Joshua 9:15 records the treaty that followed.
Nothing that breathes in these nations
Deuteronomy 20:16-18
The near cities get no such offer, and verse 18 gives the reason, “so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods”. Six nations are named here where 7:1 names seven. Adam Clarke argues that the Hebrew verb can mean ending a people's national existence, and John Gill reads the sentence as judgment on crimes long accumulated, the timing Genesis 15:16 set.
Deuteronomy 20:16
“But of the cities of those people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance,.... The cities of the seven nations, six of which are mentioned by name in the next verse: thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth; the reason of this severity was because of their wickedness, the capital crimes and gross abominations they were guilty of, and for which they deserved to die; and on account whereof they were reserved to this destruction, when the measure of their iniquities was full, such as idolatry, incest, witchcraft, soothsaying, necromancy, &c. see Lev 18:3.”
The command points back to 7:1 and 2, where the same nations are named and the LORD your God commands Israel to devote them to complete destruction. Joshua 11:15 reports Joshua leaving nothing undone of that command. Adam Clarke reads the devotion as destroying each nation's political existence.
Deuteronomy 20:17
“But thou shalt utterly destroy them - The above reasoning will gain considerable strength, provided we could translate כי החרם תחרימם ki hacharem tacharimem, thou shalt utterly subdue them - slaying them if they resist, and thus leaving nothing alive that breathed; or totally expel them from the land, or reduce them to a state of slavery in it, that they might no longer exist as a people. This certainly made them an anathema as a nation, wholly destroying their political existence.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Gill names the detestable things done for their gods, idolatry and witchcraft among them. When Israel left the nations alive, Psalm 106:34 to 37 records that it worshiped their idols and sacrificed its sons and daughters to demons. The nations did teach Israel to sin.
Is the tree of the field a man?
Deuteronomy 20:19-20
The axe is forbidden against fruit trees and allowed against the rest, so the line falls between what feeds a man and what does not. The King James supplies the word life here, while Matthew Henry reports that the Septuagint and the Targums read the clause as a question, as the Berean does: “Are the trees of the field human”. Adam Clarke calls the Hebrew exceedingly obscure.
Deuteronomy 20:19
“When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it,.... Before it will surrender; it holding out the siege a considerable time: the Hebrew text says, "many days" (c); which the Targum of Jonathan interprets of all the seven days, to make war against it, in order to subdue it on the sabbath day.”
3 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 20:19
“The Logos in his goodness, richly equipped with love of humankind, teaches that it is not right to cut down cultivated trees, still less to cut crops for purposes of vandalism before harvest, and even less still to destroy, root and branch, cultivated fruit, whether of the land or of the soul. It does not even allow the razing of enemy land. Yes, and farmers find their profit from the law.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 2patristic
Deuteronomy 20:19
“But fruit-bearing trees were to be carefully spared; and, indeed, in warm countries like India, where the people live much more on fruit than we do, the destruction of a fruit tree is considered a sort of sacrilege.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 20:19
“That reason, for the tree of the field is man's (the word life we supply), all the ancient versions, the Septuagint, Targums, &c., read, For is the tree of the field a man? Or the tree of the field is not a man, that it should come against thee in the siege, or retire from thee into the bulwark.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Only trees without fruit may feed the siege works. Clement of Alexandria draws a wider lesson, that the Logos forbids destroying cultivated fruit, whether of the land or of the soul. 2 Kings 3:25 records a later campaign in which every good tree was cut down.
How this psalm is built
The form: Law restated inside a spoken address, standing in the stipulations of a covenant treaty, as Kline classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Hear, O Israel, opening a charge before a battle | The phrase opens the priest's charge at verse 3, and it is the fourth and last time it falls in this book after 5:1, 6:4 and 9:1. The other three open teaching, so the words that carry the Shema are used here to steady an army.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 20:1-4, the store's exposition_notes row on Deuteronomy 20:1-4, which counts the four places. | Deuteronomy 20:3 |
| Four men sent home, three for one reason | Verses 5 to 8 release a man with a new house not dedicated, a man with a vineyard not yet eaten of, and a man betrothed and not married. The reason given each time is the same, that another man would take what he left. The fourth case stands on different ground, since the fearful and fainthearted are released for the sake of the ranks.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 20:5. | Deuteronomy 20:5, Deuteronomy 20:6, Deuteronomy 20:7, Deuteronomy 20:8 |
| The far city and the near city, set against each other | Verses 10 to 15 govern cities very far off and verses 16 to 18 govern the cities of the nations in the land. The first are offered peace before the siege, and the second are given no such offer, so the chapter states two rules and marks the line between them at verse 15.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 20:10. | Deuteronomy 20:10, Deuteronomy 20:15, Deuteronomy 20:16 |
| The tree that feeds a man and the tree that does not | Verses 19 and 20 forbid the axe against fruit trees and allow it against the rest, so the line drawn is between what feeds a man and what does not. A besieging army may eat of the trees and may not fell them for its works.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Deuteronomy 20:19. | Deuteronomy 20:19, Deuteronomy 20:20 |
The command against the nations of Canaan
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 17 gives no offer of peace to the cities in the land, and verse 18 supplies the reason, that they would teach Israel to do after all their abominations. Genesis 15:16 had already tied the timing to the iniquity of the Amorites, which was not yet full in Abraham's day. Deuteronomy 9:5 states the other half, that the dispossession rests on those nations' wickedness rather than on Israel's righteousness. Those three verses are the evidence this site handles the command on, and it adds no speculation beyond them.
The question is argued in full on the feature page for the Canaanite conquest, and this site's dossier carries the two positions with their holders. The first reads the command as judgment on the Canaanite cities on the grounds the text itself gives, which is the reading held across the church's history and stated in these terms by Christopher J. H. Wright (The God I Don't Understand, 2008). The second reads the language as the conventional hyperbole of ancient conquest reporting, which is the case K. Lawson Younger argued by comparing the biblical wording with Egyptian, Hittite and Assyrian campaign texts (Ancient Conquest Accounts, 1990). Kenneth A. Kitchen adds that Joshua and Judges both describe survivors in the same cities said to be wholly destroyed. This page states no verdict between them.
Adam Clarke argues that the Hebrew verb here can carry the sense of subduing or expelling a people out of national existence. John Gill reads the sentence as judgment on capital crimes long accumulated.
The nations counted here and counted at 7:1
Six nations are named at verse 17 where 7:1 names seven, and the Girgashites are absent from this list. The difference stands in the text and is carried as it stands.
Where the chapter is taken up later
Judges 7:3 has Gideon use the words of verse 8 and watch twenty-two thousand men leave, so the release of the fearful is recorded as having been applied. Jewish tradition gave the priest of verse 2 a title of his own, the anointed of the war, and Matthew Henry takes up the name.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
K. Lawson Younger, Ancient Conquest Accounts, 1990; Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, 1963 and Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 1972.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.