Rules of Warfare

(Deuteronomy 20:1 - 20:20)
"When you go out to do battle with your enemies and face superior numbers of horses and chariots and an army larger than yours, have no fear, for Jehovah your god, who brought you out of Egypt, is on your side. 

"When you prepare for battle, the priest should come forward and address the troops, saying to them, 'Hear me, O men of Israel!  Today you are going out to do battle with the enemy.  Fear not.  Be not faint of heart.  Do not panic or tremble before them, for Jehovah your god will be the one who will be fighting for you and he will bring you victory over your enemy.'

"The the officers of the army should address the troops and say, 'Has anyone here built a new house, but has not yet dedicated it?  If so, you may go home, or else you may be killed in battle and someone else will live in it.  Has anyone here just planted a vineyard and not eaten its fruit?  If so, you may go home, or else you may be killed in battle and someone else will eat its fruit.  Has anyone here just become betrothed to a woman, but has not yet married her?  If so, you may go home, or else you may be killed in battle and someone else will marry her.'  And they should also say, 'Is anyone here frightened or worried?  If so, you should go home lest you put fear into the hearts of your fellow soldiers.'  After the officers have finished addressing their troops, they should appoint unit commanders.

"When you advance to attack a town, you must first make the inhabitants an offer of peace.  If they accept it and open the gates of the town to you, then the inhabitants will be subject to forced labor and serve you as slaves.  But if they refuse the peace offer and are determined to resist, then you will besiege the town.  When Jehovah your god has delivered the town into your hands, you will put every male inhabitant to the sword.  The women and children, the livestock and all property within the town you will take as plunder.   Enjoy the spoils of war Jehovah your god gives to you!

"This is how you will treat distant towns, not those of the country you are now entering.  In the towns that are a part of your inheritance, you must exterminate every living thing.  You must completely destroy them as a divine sacrifice -- the Hethites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites -- as Jehovah your god has commanded you to do.  For if you do not, they will teach you to follow their despicable customs of worshiping other gods and cause you to sin grievously against Jehovah your god.

"When you are attacking a town and the siege to take it becomes protracted, do not destroy its trees by felling them with axes.  You may partake of their fruit, but do not cut them down for your own use during the siege, for fruit trees are for the benefit of all.  (Trees that you know are not fruit bearing may, however, be cut down and their wood employed in constructing siege works until the town with which you are at war falls.)"

Notes
1. In his obsession to micromanage every aspect of Israelite society, Jehovah must tell the priests and army commanders exactly what they must tell their soldiers as they go into battle.  The priest must assure them that Jehovah will be fighting on their side and, therefore, victory is a forgone conclusion.  But if Jehovah, a god who can perform any sort of miracle, is on their side, why do they need to fight at all and suffer unnecessary casualties?  Can't Jehovah just destroy the Israelites' enemies as he (or someone else claiming the name Jehovah) destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah?  Or is this too easy and Jehovah wants to make his people earn their victories?

2. The exhortation to battle to be delivered by the military commanders is hardly that which Shakespeare put in the mouth of Henry V or the speech delivered by Patton in the film of the same title.  It is extraordinary that a commander, instead of stressing the importance and nobility of the fighting and encouraging his men to fight hard and be brave, would merely search for justifications to send his fighting men home.  "Oh, you just got engaged, you're waiting for your vineyard to bear fruit, you bought a new house, or you have a nervous disposition, entertain some misgivings about fighting, or are simply an unmanly coward?  That's perfectly all right.  You can go home and leave the fighting to others."  What an inspiring message!  It is impossible to imagine any competent general or even an incompetent general from any country in any period of history uttering such a wimpy speech.  And it is interesting that Jehovah does not inspire his people to courage and deeds of valor, but rather to plunder and pillage, to rape and enslave.

3. It is no surprise that the tolerance Jehovah exhibits towards the Israelite soldiers is not extended to the enemy.   Those that surrender are made slaves, those that don't are made slaves as well, save that all the men, prisoners of war included, are slaughtered.  But this applies only to peoples who live outside of the Promised Land.  For the peoples living within the Promised Land Jehovah proffers no quarter whatsoever, for them genocidal extermination seems to be the order of the day.  No respect for any Geneva Convention type protocols.  It is remarkable then that all the peoples Moses mentions (Hethites, Canaanites, etc.) were not totally wiped out at an early date.  Such was not the case, for biblical sources continue to mention them centuries later.


4. The annihilation of people already residing in the Promised Land seems to be justified as a preventive measure to ensure that the Israelites do not worship their gods.  Jehovah’s primary interest always seems to be the preservation of his status as the sole Israelite god.  No length is too great, nothing too extreme, too heinous that serves that end.

5. Jehovah at least passes muster as an environmentalist in forbidding the Israelites to cut down fruit trees.  In the region, cutting down a fruit tree was almost as bad as poisoning a well.  It simply wasn’t done, old chap!  This is an interesting and rare occasion in which the immediate interests of the Israelites are subordinated by Jehovah to the interests of mankind in general.