Laws Concerning Warfare

[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. [2] And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, [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; [4] For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. [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. [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. [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. [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. [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. [10] When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. [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. [12] And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: [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: [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. [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. [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: [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: [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. [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: [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.

Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

• War

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

• War

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

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.

Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;

Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

• War

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.

When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled;

• Darkness

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.