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:_ Thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof. In a protracted siege wood would be required for various purposes, both for military works and for fuel. 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....

19._When thou shalt besiege a city a long time_. I have not hesitated to annex this precept to the Eighth Commandment, for when God lays a restraint on the liberty of inflicting injuries in the very heat of war, with respect to felling trees, much more did He desire His people to abstain from all mischievous acts in time of peace. The sum is, that although the laws of war opened the gate to plunder and rapine, still they were to beware, as much as possible, lest the land being desolated, it should be barren for the future; in short, that the booty was so to be taken from the enemy, as that the advantage of the human race should still be considered, and that posterity might still be nourished by the trees which do not quickly arrive at the age of fruit-bearing. He commands them to spare fruit-trees, first of all, for this reason, because they supply food to all men; and thus the blessing...

10-12 The Israelites are here directed about the nations on whom they made war. Let this show God's grace in dealing with sinners. He proclaims peace, and beseeches them to be reconciled. Let it also show us our duty in dealing with our brethren. Whoever are for war, we must be for peace. Of the cities given to Israel, none of their inhabitants must be left. Since it could not be expected that they should be cured of their idolatry, they would hurt Israel. These regulations are not the rules of our conduct, but Christ's law of love. The horrors of war must fill the feeling heart with anguish upon every recollection; and are proofs of the wickedness of man, the power of Satan, and the just vengeance of God, who thus scourges a guilty world. But how dreadful their case who are engaged in unequal conflict with their Maker, who will not submit to render him the easy tribute of worship and p...

Verse Deuteronomy 20:19. (_FOR THE TREE OF THE FIELD_ IS _MAN'S_ LIFE) _TO EMPLOY_ THEM _IN THE SIEGE_] The original is exceedingly obscure, and has been variously translated, כי האדם עץ השדה לבא מפניך במצור _ki_ _haadam ets hassadeh labo mippaneycha bammatsor_. The following are the chief versions: _For, O man, the trees of the field are for_ _thee to employ_ THEM _in the siege _- or, _For it is man, and the tree_ _of the field, that must go before thee for a bulwark _- or, _For it is_ _a tree, and not men, to increase the number of those who come_ _against thee to the siege _- or, lastly, _The tree of the field_ (is as) _a man, to go before thy face for a bulwark_. The sense is sufficiently clear, though the strict _grammatical_ meaning of the words cann...

Directions intended to prevent wanton destruction of life and property in sieges. Deuteronomy 20:16 Forbearance, however, was not to be shown toward the Canaanite nations, which were to be utterly exterminated (compare Deuteronomy 7:1). The command did not apply to beasts as well as men (compare Joshua 11:11, Joshua 11:14). Deuteronomy 20:19 The parenthesis may he more literally rendered “for man is a tree of the field,” i.

EXPOSITION DIRECTIONS CONCERNING WARFARE IN GENERAL, AND FOR THE BESIEGING OF CITIES IN PARTICULAR. DEUTERONOMY 20:1 The instructions in this chapter are peculiar to Deuteronomy. As the people of God, Israel was not a warlike nation; they were rather to abstain from warfare, and as a general rule to cultivate the arts of peace. But they had before them at this time the prospect of a serious and protracted conflict before they could occupy the land which God had assigned to them; and they might in future years have to go to war to maintain their independence and repel aggression. In view of this, instructions are here given

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. Jarchi observes, that "days" signify two, and "many" three; hence it is said, they do not besiege cities of the Gentiles less than three days before the sabbath; and he also says it teaches that peace is opened or proclaimed two or three days first: THOU SHALL NOT DESTROY THE TREES THEREOF BY FORCING AN AXE AGAINST THEM; that is, not cut them down with an axe, such trees as were without the city, and in the power of the besiegers: what sort of trees are meant appears by what follows: FOR THOU MAYEST EAT OF THEM; the fruit of them, which shows them to be fruit trees, an...

DEUTERONOMY 20. LAWS TO BE OBSERVED DURING WAR. Peculiar to cf. Deuteronomy 21:10 (which some attach immediately to ch. 20) and Deuteronomy 23:9; Deuteronomy 24:5 (see remarks prefixed to Deuteronomy 19:14 ff.). The general effect of these laws is to soften the barbarities of war, though in some respects (Deuteronomy 20:13) they perpetuate its grossest cruelties. What were the wars which suggested these regulations?...

MAN'S. Hebrew. _'adam._ App-14....

_besiege … a long time_ From this and _build bulwarks_in Deuteronomy 20:19, we see that Israel were already familiar with siege-operations and did not depend on carrying a city by immediate storm, as the nomad Semites were obliged to do or retire. _in making war against it to take it_ Curiously redundant. _by wielding an axe against them_ The vb as in Deuteronomy 19:5. _for thou mayest_ Or, _but_. Even here a utilitarian reason is given. _for is the tree of the field man_…?] or _human_. So according to LXX and other versions. The Heb. pointing, which omits the interrogative, gives no sense. _that it should be besieged of thee_ Lit. _that it should come into siege before thee_: the technical phrase,...