---
title: "Deuteronomy 20:16-20 KJV - \"But of the cities of these people, whi...\" | Real Bible Believers"
description: "\"But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that br\" — Read Deuteronomy 20:16-20 in the King James Version (KJV) with commentary, cross references, and Greek/Hebrew lexicon."
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url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/kjv/deuteronomy/20/16-20"
---

[ Read](/kjv/deuteronomy/20)[ Commentary](/study/deuteronomy/20)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/deuteronomy/20) Audio

## Deuteronomy 20:16-20 in Context (Verses 13–20 KJV)
 
 [13 ](/kjv/deuteronomy/20/13) 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 ](/kjv/deuteronomy/20/14) 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 ](/kjv/deuteronomy/20/15) 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 ](/kjv/deuteronomy/20/16) 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 ](/kjv/deuteronomy/20/17) 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 ](/kjv/deuteronomy/20/18) 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 ](/kjv/deuteronomy/20/19) ¶ 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 ](/kjv/deuteronomy/20/20) 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.*
 
[Deuteronomy 19](/kjv/deuteronomy/19) [Deuteronomy 21](/kjv/deuteronomy/21)

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