(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Deuteronomy 20:10–20, “When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: 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. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. 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: 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: 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. 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: 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.”
When the armies of Israel went to war they were to give their enemies a chance to surrender and save bloodshed. If the people refused to surrender then Israel would have some justification for going to battle against their enemies. When the battle had been fought and won, then they were to exact the Lord’s judgment on that city and execute everyone who had sought to battle with the Lord’s anointed. In those days, the men were responsible for making the decisions and not the women or children so the women and children were spared form the punishment. Even though Israel entered the Land to act as the Lord’s agents and punish the people because their iniquity was now full, they had to understand they were not fighting against the Land but against the people. There were examples where the attacking forces tried to ruin the land as well and force the people away from their homes. (Judg 9:45–46, “And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. And when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into an hold of the house of the god Berith.”) In this case, those people were also punishing the people in that city and wanted to force them away from their ancestral homeland. On the other hand, Israel were punishing the Amorites and also satisfying the promise that the Lord gave to Abraham. They wanted to take possession of the Land and live there themselves. This is why they were not to wage was against the Land. Later, when they were living in the Land, they would need to food to eat. They were not to destroy any fruit trees or other vegetation that might be useful later.
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