Deuteronomy Chapter 20 · Matthew Poole

Deuteronomy 20:1 When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. The priest’s exhortation to encourage the people to fight their enemies,

Deu 20:1-4. The officers’ proclamation who are to be dismissed from the war,

Deu 20:5-9. A proclamation of peace to be made to besieged cities,

Deu 20:10, and to deal with them as they accept or refuse it,

Deu 20:11-18. What trees were to be cut down for the siege, and what not,

Deu 20:19 ,20.

When thou goest out to battle,

upon a just and necessary cause, as upon great provocation, or for thy own defence.

Deuteronomy 20:2 And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, The priest;

an eminent priest appointed for this work, and to blow with the holy trumpets,

Numbers 10:9 31:6.

Speak unto the people;

either successively to one regiment of the army after another, or to some by himself, to others by his brethren or deputies, which accompanied him for that end.

Deuteronomy 20:3 And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; Faint,

Heb.

be soft or tender. Softness or tenderness of heart towards God is commended,

2 Kings 22:19, but towards enemies it is condemned, here and

Deu 20:8 Leviticus 26:36 2 Chronicles 13:7 Isaiah 7:4.

Deuteronomy 20:4 For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. No text from Poole on this verse.

Deuteronomy 20:5 And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. Houses were

dedicated

by feasting and thanksgiving to God. See

Psalm 30:1 Nehemiah 12:27. Heb.

hath initiated it, i. e. entered upon it, taken possession of it, dwelt in it.

Let him return to his house,

lest his heart be set upon it, and thereby he be negligent or timorous in the battle, to the scandal and prejudice of others.

Another man dedicate it;

and so he should lose and another get the fruit of his labours, which might seem unjust or hard. And God provides even for men’s infirmities. But this and the following exceptions are to be understood only of a war allowed by God, not in a war commanded by God, not in the approaching war with the Canaanites, from which even the bridegroom was not exempted, as the Jewish writers note.

Deuteronomy 20:6 And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. This and the former dispensation were generally convenient, but more necessary in the beginning of their settlement in Canaan, for the encouragement of those who should build houses or plant vineyards, which was chargeable to them, and beneficial to the commonwealth.

Eaten of it,

Heb.

made it common, to wit, for the use of himself and family and friends, which it was not till the fifth year,

Leviticus 19:23 Jeremiah 31:5.

Deuteronomy 20:7 And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. Betrothing was done by a solemn and mutual promise, but not by an actual contract. See

Genesis 19:14 Deu 22:23.

Deuteronomy 20:8 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. No text from Poole on this verse.

Deuteronomy 20:9 And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people. Or rather, as the Hebrew hath it,

they shall set or place the captains of the armies in the head or front of the people

under their charge, that they may conduct and manage them, and by their example encourage their soldiers. But it is not likely they had their captains to make or choose when they were just going to battle.

Deuteronomy 20:10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. This seems to be understood not of the cities of the Canaanites, as is manifest from

Deu 20:16-18, who were under an absolute sentence of utter destruction,

Exodus 23:32 ,33 Deu 7:1,2; whence they are blamed that made any league or peace with them,

Judges 2:2; but of the cities either of other nations who injured or disturbed them, or commenced war against them, or aided their enemies, or oppressed their friends and allies; or of the Hebrews themselves, if they were guilty or abettors of idolatry or apostacy from God, or of sedition or rebellion against authority, or of giving protection and defence to capital offenders. See

Ge 15 Jud 20 2Sa 20, &c.

Deuteronomy 20:11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. By their purses, and by their labours too, as appears from

1 Kings 9:15 2 Chronicles 8:7 ,8

Deuteronomy 20:12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: No text from Poole on this verse.

Deuteronomy 20:13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: A just punishment of their obstinate refusal of peace offered.

Deuteronomy 20:14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. The little ones,

excused by their sex or age, as not involved in the guilt, nor being likely to revenge their quarrel.

Deuteronomy 20:15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. No text from Poole on this verse.

Deuteronomy 20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: Heb.

no seed, i.e. no man, as that word is oft used. Compare

Joshua 10:40, with

Deu 11:14. For the beasts, some few excepted as being under a special curse, were given them for a prey.

Deuteronomy 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely , the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: No text from Poole on this verse.

Deuteronomy 20:18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God. No text from Poole on this verse.

Deuteronomy 20:19 When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life ) to employ them in the siege: The trees thereof,

to wit, the fruit trees, as appears from the following words; which is to be understood of a general destruction of them, not of the cutting down of some few of them, as the conveniency of the siege might require.

Man’s life,

i.e. the sustenance or support of his life, as

life

is taken

Deu 24:6. But this place may be otherwise translated, as it is in the margin of our English Bibles:

For, O man, (the Hebrew letter

he

being here the note of a vocative case, as it is

Psalm 9:7)

the tree

(or trees, the singular number for the plural, as is common) of the field is (or ought, as the Hebrew

lamed

is used

Esther 9:1 Psalm 62:10)

to be employed in the siege; or, as it is in the Hebrew,

to go before thy face, i.e. to make fences for thy security,

in the siege.

The trees of the field:

I here understand not its general signification of all trees, including fruit-bearing trees, as that phrase is commonly used, but in its more special and distinct signification, for unfruitful trees, as it is taken

Isaiah 55:12; or such as grow only in open fields, such as are elsewhere called the

trees of the wood,

1 Chronicles 16:33 Isaiah 7:2, or

the trees of the forest,

Song of Solomon 2:3 Isaiah 10:19, which are opposed to the trees of the gardens,

Genesis 3:2 ,8 Ec 2:5 Ezekiel 31:9; as the

flower of the field,

Psalm 103:15 Isaiah 40:6, and

the lilies of the field,

Matthew 6:28, are opposed to those that grow in gardens, and are preserved and cultivated by the gardener’s art and care. And so it is a very proper argument to dissuade from the destroying of fruit trees, because the wild and unfruitful trees were sufficient for the use of the siege. And this sense fitly agrees with the following words, where the concession or grant, which here is delivered in more ambiguous terms, of

the tree of the field, is repeated and explained concerning

the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat.

Deuteronomy 20:20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued. No text from Poole on this verse.