And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: (Deuteronomy 20:13 KJV) 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: (Deuteronomy 20:19 KJV)

It’s important to keep Your priorities straight. Kill all the men. Enslave the women and children. But don’t hurt the fruit trees.

When they are to take the land the Lord has promised them, they are supposed to kill everyone, and the animals. But He doesn’t say what to do with those fruit trees.

When you … say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” be sure to appoint over you a king the lord your God chooses. … (Deuteronomy 17:14-15 NIV)

He’s not even pretending to give His people free will. They can appoint any king He chooses. One catch about being king is that you can only have a moderate amount of wife’s. Don’t overdo it.

He later tells them at He will provide prophets who will speak as Moses has. You tell that they are His prophets because they’ll predict correctly. That hasn’t worked out very well lately. I’ve been known to do a pretty good cold reading sometimes.

Next: Deuteronomy 21-23.