But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the plunder from your enemies that the Lord your God has given you.
Parallel translations
- WEB but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its plunder, you shall take for plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you.
- KJV 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.
- BSB But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you.
- NKJV But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the Lord your God gives you.
- NASB However, the women, the children, the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall use the spoils of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The women, children, livestock, and goods of a distant city may be taken as plunder. Non-combatants were spared even in conquest.
Overview
In contrast to the men who fought, the women, children, and possessions were preserved and taken as spoil given by God. This mercy toward non-combatants distinguished these rules of war from total annihilation. Even amid judgment, God's provisions reflect restraint and care for the vulnerable.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Josh 8:2You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”
- Josh 22:8and spoke to them, saying, “Return with much wealth to your tents, with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with brass, with iron, and with very much clothing. Divide the plunder of your enemies with your brothers.”
- Num 31:9The children of Israel took the women of Midian captive with their little ones; and all their livestock, all their flocks, and all their goods, they took as plunder.
- Rom 8:37No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
- 2 Chr 20:25When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their plunder, they found among them in abundance both riches and dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away. They took plunder for three days, it was so much.
- 2 Chr 14:13–15Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar: and so many of the Ethiopians fell that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before Yahweh and before his army; and they carried away very much booty.
- Num 31:12They brought the captives, and the prey, and the plunder, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.
- Num 31:35–54and thirty-two thousand persons in all, of the women who had not known man by lying with him.
- Ps 68:12“Kings of armies flee! They flee!” She who waits at home divides the plunder,
- Num 31:18But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
- Josh 11:14The children of Israel took all the plunder of these cities, with the livestock, as plunder for themselves; but every man they struck with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They didn’t leave any who breathed.
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 20:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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