Deuteronomy 20

As soon as I read the title of this chapter I knew I would enjoy reading it. War and combat happen to be specialties of mine: I have studied them most of my life, and I very nearly joined the Navy when I was in college.

You could almost look at this chapter as 'rules of engagement' for the Israelites. They were to offer terms to any city outside of the promised land that they might go to war against, and if it accepted peace then the inhabitants would survive (as slaves). If they did not, and fought against the Israelites, then all adult males would be executed upon taking the city. If that was well known, I imagine cities might tend to surrender rather than resist.

If the city was in the promised land, though - the land God sent them to take - then no terms were offered and every living thing inside would be killed. This is known as total war, and while looked down upon today one cannot deny its effectiveness. Since it was God who commanded it here, it had to be done.

The other interesting thing in this section is the exceptions from service in the army. If one had newly built a home, planted a vineyard, or gotten engaged then they were not to participate in combat. Furthermore, those who were weak of heart were not allowed since their fear and doubt could spread to other troops. I think those instructions make a lot of sense, and I must assume that enough men were still left to fight - but that would matter little anyways, as God himself would fight for the Israelites. How cool is that!