Deuteronomy 20:19
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
Deuteronomy 29:18
Context29:18 Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. 5
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 “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”