Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 20:19-20 
Context20:19 If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, 1 you must not chop down its trees, 2 for you may eat fruit 3 from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! 4 20:20 However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, 5 and you may use it to build siege works 6 against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.
1 tn Heb “to fight against it to capture it.”
2 tn Heb “you must not destroy its trees by chopping them with an iron” (i.e., an ax).
3 tn Heb “you may eat from them.” The direct object is not expressed; the word “fruit” is supplied in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “to go before you in siege.”
5 tn Heb “however, a tree which you know is not a tree for food you may destroy and cut down.”
6 tn Heb “[an] enclosure.” The term מָצוֹר (matsor) may refer to encircling ditches or to surrounding stagings. See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 238.
