Deuteronomy 20:16

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Laws Concerning War with Canaanite Nations As for the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive.

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Josh 11:14 : 14 The Israelites plundered all the goods of these cities and the cattle, but they totally destroyed all the people and allowed no one who breathed to live.
  • Num 21:2-3 : 2 So Israel made a vow to the LORD and said,“If you will indeed deliver this people into our hand, then we will utterly destroy their cities.” 3 The LORD listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called Hormah.
  • Num 33:52 : 52 you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, and demolish their high places.
  • Deut 7:1-4 : 1 The Dispossession of Nonvassals When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you– Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you– 2 and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy! 3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you.
  • Deut 7:16 : 16 Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism You must destroy all the people whom the LORD your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
  • Josh 6:17-21 : 17 The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the LORD; only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house will live, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But be careful when you are setting apart the riches for God. If you take any of it, you will make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation and cause a disaster. 19 All the silver and gold, as well as bronze and iron items, belong to the LORD. They must go into the LORD’s treasury.” 20 The rams’ horns sounded and when the army heard the signal, they gave a loud battle cry. The wall collapsed and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. 21 They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys.
  • Josh 9:24 : 24 They said to Joshua,“It was carefully reported to your subjects how the LORD your God commanded Moses his servant to assign you the whole land and to destroy all who live in the land from before you. Because of you we were terrified we would lose our lives, so we did this thing.
  • Josh 9:27 : 27 and that day made them woodcutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the LORD at the divinely chosen site.(They continue in that capacity to this very day.)
  • Josh 10:28 : 28 Joshua Launches a Southern Campaign That day Joshua captured Makkedah and put the sword to it and its king. He annihilated everyone who lived in it; he left no survivors. He did to its king what he had done to the king of Jericho.
  • Josh 10:40 : 40 Joshua defeated the whole land, including the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivors. He annihilated everything that breathed, just as the LORD God of Israel had commanded.
  • Josh 11:11-12 : 11 They annihilated everyone who lived there with the sword– no one who breathed remained– and burned Hazor. 12 Joshua captured all these royal cities and all their kings and annihilated them with the sword, as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded.
  • Num 21:35 : 35 So they defeated Og, his sons, and all his people, until there were no survivors, and they possessed his land.
  • Exod 23:31-33 : 31 I will set your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. 32 “You must make no covenant with them or with their gods. 33 They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Deut 20:12-15
    4 verses
    85%

    12If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it.

    13The LORD your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword.

    14However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city– all its plunder– you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the LORD your God has given you.

    15This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

  • Deut 20:17-20
    4 verses
    84%

    17Instead you must utterly annihilate them– the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites– just as the LORD your God has commanded you,

    18so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the LORD your God.

    19If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, you must not chop down its trees, for you may eat fruit from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it!

    20However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, and you may use it to build siege works against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.

  • Deut 13:15-17
    3 verses
    79%

    15you must by all means slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.

    16You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It will be an abandoned ruin forever– it must never be rebuilt again.

    17You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment. Then the LORD will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors.

  • Josh 11:11-14
    4 verses
    78%

    11They annihilated everyone who lived there with the sword– no one who breathed remained– and burned Hazor.

    12Joshua captured all these royal cities and all their kings and annihilated them with the sword, as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded.

    13But Israel did not burn any of the cities located on mounds, except for Hazor; it was the only one Joshua burned.

    14The Israelites plundered all the goods of these cities and the cattle, but they totally destroyed all the people and allowed no one who breathed to live.

  • Deut 7:2
    77%

    2and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy!

  • Deut 19:1-2
    2 verses
    76%

    1Laws Concerning Manslaughter When the LORD your God destroys the nations whose land he is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses,

    2you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession.

  • Deut 7:16-17
    2 verses
    75%

    16Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism You must destroy all the people whom the LORD your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

    17If you think,“These nations are more numerous than I– how can I dispossess them?”

  • Deut 2:34-35
    2 verses
    75%

    34At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them under divine judgment, including even the women and children; we left no survivors.

    35We kept only the livestock and plunder from the cities for ourselves.

  • Josh 10:39-40
    2 verses
    75%

    39They captured it, its king, and all its surrounding cities and put the sword to them. They annihilated everyone who lived there; they left no survivors. They did to Debir and its king what they had done to Libnah and its king and to Hebron.

    40Joshua defeated the whole land, including the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivors. He annihilated everything that breathed, just as the LORD God of Israel had commanded.

  • Deut 3:6
    73%

    6We put all of these under divine judgment just as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon– every occupied city, including women and children.

  • Deut 8:20
    73%

    20Just like the nations the LORD is about to destroy from your sight, so he will do to you because you would not obey him.

  • Deut 31:3-5
    3 verses
    73%

    3As for the LORD your God, he is about to cross over before you; he will destroy these nations before you and you will dispossess them. As for Joshua, he is about to cross before you just as the LORD has said.

    4The LORD will do to them just what he did to Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings, and to their land, which he destroyed.

    5The LORD will deliver them over to you and you will do to them according to the whole commandment I have given you.

  • Josh 10:19-20
    2 verses
    73%

    19But don’t you delay! Chase your enemies and catch them! Don’t allow them to retreat to their cities, for the LORD your God is handing them over to you.”

    20Joshua and the Israelites almost totally wiped them out, but some survivors did escape to the fortified cities.

  • Deut 12:29
    73%

    29The Abomination of Pagan Gods When the LORD your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land.

  • Josh 11:19-20
    2 verses
    73%

    19No city made peace with the Israelites(except the Hivites living in Gibeon); they had to conquer all of them,

    20for the LORD determined to make them obstinate so they would attack Israel. He wanted Israel to annihilate them without mercy, as he had instructed Moses.

  • Num 21:2
    72%

    2So Israel made a vow to the LORD and said,“If you will indeed deliver this people into our hand, then we will utterly destroy their cities.”

  • Exod 22:20
    72%

    20“Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the LORD alone must be utterly destroyed.

  • Deut 12:2
    72%

    2You must by all means destroy all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods– on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree.

  • Judg 21:11
    72%

    11Do this: exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has experienced a man’s bed. But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed.

  • Deut 7:22-23
    2 verses
    72%

    22He, the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you.

    23The LORD your God will give them over to you; he will throw them into a great panic until they are destroyed.

  • Deut 19:10
    72%

    10You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty.

  • Deut 16:20
    72%

    20You must pursue justice alone so that you may live and inherit the land the LORD your God is giving you.

  • Josh 6:21
    72%

    21They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys.

  • Josh 10:30
    72%

    30The LORD handed it and its king over to Israel, and Israel put the sword to all who lived there; they left no survivors. They did to its king what they had done to the king of Jericho.

  • 1 Sam 15:3
    72%

    3So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare them. Put them to death– man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.’”

  • Num 31:17-18
    2 verses
    71%

    17Now therefore kill every boy, and kill every woman who has been intimate with a man in bed.

    18But all the young women who have not experienced a man’s bed will be yours.

  • Num 33:52
    71%

    52you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, and demolish their high places.

  • Deut 6:19
    71%

    19and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the LORD said.

  • Deut 7:20
    71%

    20Furthermore, the LORD your God will release hornets among them until the very last ones who hide from you perish.