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Expanded Comments |
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| 1 When thou goest forth to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, thou shalt not be afraid of them; for Jehovah thy God is with thee, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. |
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| 2 And it shall be, when ye draw nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, |
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| 3 and shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye draw nigh this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint; fear not, nor tremble, neither be ye affrighted at them; |
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| 4 for Jehovah your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. |
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| 5 And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. |
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| 6 And what man is there that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not used the fruit thereof? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit thereof. |
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| 7 And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. |
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| 8 And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart melt as his heart. |
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| 9 And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people. |
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| 10 When thou drawest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. |
Fight against it – Typifying how spiritual Israelites take possession of their human bodies and, as New Creatures, must conquer and destroy these tendencies of the flesh. R5706:6
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| 11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that are found therein shall become tributary unto thee, and shall serve thee. |
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| 12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: |
Make war against thee – If we do not overcome and destroy our fleshly tendencies, they will overcome and destroy us. R5706:6
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| 13 and when Jehovah thy God delivereth it into thy hand, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: |
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| 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 for a prey unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which Jehovah thy God hath given thee. |
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| 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. |
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| 16 But of the cities of these peoples, that Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth; |
These people – A menace to the morals of Israel--not only idolatrous, but practicing licentious rites, divinations, etc. R5706:5
God doth give thee – It was not the Israelites who were to decide to possess the land--but God was to give them possession. R5707:1
Save alive nothing – God had declared that their iniquity had come to the full. It was a blessing to themselves and others that they died at the time they did. R5706:5, R5707:1
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| 17 but thou shalt utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee; |
Utterly destroy – No injustice to the Amalekites, Hittites and Canaanites since they were already under the death sentence. F174
They typified the willful sinners of the Millennial age. F174
In the Kingdom man will also learn how to exterminate the things of sin. R5707:1
Our warfare against spiritual foes must result in the utter destruction of the fleshly mind, and it will also mean the death of the human body. R5706:6
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| 18 that they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so would ye sin against Jehovah your God. |
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| 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 wielding an axe against them; for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down; for is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged of thee? |
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| 20 Only the trees of which thou knowest that they are not trees for food, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it fall. |
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